Trump’s troop withdrawal just words?

I, along with every other member of the anti-war movement, applaud President Trump’s decision to withdraw the remaining 2,000 U.S. soldiers from Syria. We’re not holding our breath, however, that he will actually complete this small step of ending an immoral, illegal and criminal U.S. military intervention. Trump has reneged on doing what he announces, whether good or bad, more times than can be counted. The pushback from the GOP has been ferocious. Military, media and congressional hawks are trumpeting doom and gloom as if the sky is falling from this proposed pullout. Back in 2013 the U.S. ratcheted up its involvement to prevent Syrian President Bashar Assad from defeating the rebels. We cared not a whit for the Syrian people. We cared about deposing Assad in our proxy war against Syria’s allies, Iran and Russia. Instead of being a peacemaker, America dragged out the war for years. The GOP is loath to remove a single soldier from any country where we inflict mayhem. Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and Niger are just the ones we know of. The resignation of hawkish Defense Secretary James Mattis within hours of the troop withdrawal decision, citing policy differences, does not bode well for completion of the announced troop withdrawal. But we peaceniks will, like Camus’ figure in “The Myth of Sisyphus,” keep pushing that boulder of peace up the mountain from which it always rolls back down. — Walt Zlotow, Glen Ellyn