Trump pulls the troops out of Syria

Donald Trump's action to pull the troops out of Syria is probably the only thing he's done since taking office that I agree with. 

There are no good reasons for the U.S. to station troops anywhere in the Middle East, all at taxpayer expense, and at deathly risk to our brave and loyal troops.  That part of the world has been a hellhole of violence and instability for thousands and thousands of years.  It is supremely arrogant that the U.S. government thinks it can just waltz in there and magically transform that place into some model of peace and democracy.  In the eyes of the rest of the world, the U.S. is an imperialist bully, a swaggering buckaroo that thinks he's "better" than everyone else, and can do whatever the hell he wants.  And it makes innocent Americans at home potential terrorist targets.  A half-century of military intervention, allying with brutal and murderous tyrants, tens of thousands of dead troops, and trillions of taxpayer dollars down the drain have not made the world a better place. 

You want to know the best way to get rid of our enemies in the Middle East?  Just get out of the way, and let those fanatical maniacs destroy themselves with their endless wars.  We'll just watch from the sidelines, thank you.

When Islamic terrorists attacked our nation on Sept 11, 2001, it was indeed horrible that thousands of Americans died and billions of dollars worth of property was destroyed.  But that wasn't the worst of it.  I knew that the warhawk neocons would use it as an excuse for MORE foreign intervention, MORE wars, MORE wasted tax dollars, and MORE dead troops.  And as usual, I was right on the money!  To this day, I am convinced that on that fateful day, each neocon went into a private room, shut the door, then fist pumped and shouted "YESSSS!!!!!!"

Let me make one thing perfectly clear:  If some terrorist (or anyone, for that matter) tries to harm me, my home, or my family, then I got absolutely no qualms about blowing his @#$%& brains out.  That's called "defense".  But what the U.S. government does over there ain't defense, but rather, is offense.  What John Bolton, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and all the other warhawk neocons don't seem to get is that these United States became great and wealthy because of our heritage of free enterprise and limited government - and not because we have some kind of kick-ass military that likes to fight wars, anywhere, anytime, for any reason. 

But back to Trump.  Why did he choose to do this?  It's not clear.  Just like everything Trump does, it's not likely that this decision was reached after careful deliberation, study, and consultation with others.  He's never done anything like that, so why start now?  One theory is that it's all just a ruse to distract everybody from the government shutdown over his stupid, idiodic border wall. 

Then again, perhaps this is consistent with his "Make America Great Again" philosophy.  Maybe deep down inside, he understands that spending national blood and treasure trying to become a global military empire is an exercise and futility, and that the proper way to become great again is to only use the military for the purpose our forefathers envisioned:  to defend Americans, on American soil.

One can also hope that this whole episode might spur Congress into re-claiming the authority vested in it via the Constitution; you know, that document that specifically states that only CONGRESS, not the President, can declare war.  Remember that each one of them put his/her hand on the Bible and swore to uphold that noble document.  It's way past time to actually start upholding that oath.