trump has made the right decision to pull out of syria. this was a ballot question in 2016; he has a mandate for this, and is carrying out the will of the american people in removing itself from a conflict they don't want to be involved in. the pentagon, with it's mouthpieces at cnn and msnbc, will disagree with this. but, if there was a reason that trump was elected, it is this, and i am overjoyed to see him follow through with it.

the kurds need to leave this region, which is not theirs, and go home. we cannot have tribalist ethnic conquests happening in the 21st century; the syrian state must be reconstituted, and it's territorial sovereignty must be respected. the kurds cannot be allowed to conquer northern syria. that would be an anachronism, a reversion to backwardsness. it's bad enough as it is...

the turks should not be in syria, either, but if the kurds will not leave on their own then somebody needs to drive them out. i would call on the turks to respect the territorial sovereignty of the syrian state once they have completed their operation, and hand the territory back to the rightful sovereign power, which is in damascus.

the ideal here would be for an international peacekeeping force to be deployed to oversee the kurdish withdrawal, but the power politics in the region will not allow for this. this is a deficit in the united nations, and we need to reform the body so that it is able to function effectively again in the future.

for now, the turks need to occupy the role of the international peacekeeping force, and the kurds need to go home.

and, i hope that the turks will allow for co-operation with the russians as they remove the invading kurds from the region, as it is the russians (by invitation of the legitimate sovereign in syria) that will take over this space, in the long run.

this is just international law - and what anybody that pretends to pay lip service to it should be articulating.

the liberals are supposed to do better than this