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Is Trump proposing a ground war? No.

Are you ignorant of the fact we've increased troop counts in Syria and Iraq this year? I don't care what he 'proposes', because he says whatever sounds nice at whatever time he likes. I pay attention to what he does, and he's dragging us into more "stupid wars" that at one point he realized we're of no net benefit to the U.S.

I don't want Russia and China to be devising and implementing their global wet dream, at our expense.

Russia has an economy the size of Italy, and your quaking about their global domination schemes? Please how explain how you fear China's global ambitions will cost the U.S. Taxpayer more than half a trillion dollars a year?

Your way of doing things has us at constant war, with $20 trillion in debt to show for it. Better to end it by our choice and not simply because we can't afford to do it anymore.

Are you ignorant of the fact we've increased troop counts in Syria and Iraq this year?

Precisely how much have these "troop counts" been increased?

I don't care what he 'proposes', because he says whatever sounds nice at whatever time he likes. I pay attention to what he does, and he's dragging us into more "stupid wars" that at one point he realized we're of no net benefit to the U.S.

Bullshit. That's your hysteria talking—not objective reality.

Despite your hand-wringing, the President has categorically stated that we're not going into Syria. So you need to pay a little closer attention to what he does, apparently. Your ridiculous assertion has no factual basis, and I'd wager that these "increased troop counts" you're unhinged about are not substantial.

We're not interested in your efforts to tear-down a President who is doing a superb job so far. Your unstable ramblings do not constitute cause for alarm.

So take your #NeverTrump fear-mongering over to DU or some similar community that likes to masturbate to such apocalyptic garbage...

I wasn't happy with how I chose to respond to you here. LINK

After posting I thought I went too far. I waited for your response thinking I'd agree at least in part with your criticism or name-calling. To a degree, I would have agreed I deserved it, and I was ready to express that.

You did not respond, so I stepped back in now to do it for you, and apologize. I should not have responded as I did. Here is a different approach. We will not agree, but at least I'll explain instead of attack. I should have in post 36.

Is Trump proposing a ground war? No.

Are you ignorant of the fact we've increased troop counts in Syria and Iraq this year? I don't care what he 'proposes', because he says whatever sounds nice at whatever time he likes. I pay attention to what he does, and he's dragging us into more "stupid wars" that at one point he realized we're of no net benefit to the U.S.

Yes, we do have advisors and special forces on the ground in the Eastern Syria and Northern Iraq region. I'm not sure of the exact numbers, but I do not think we're talking about more than a few thousand troops.

To pin this down to better numbers, I tried to verify how many of our forces were in this region. I found THIS 11/07/16 Washington Times article that peged the numbers at five to six thousand men. If we recall the 20,000 or so men we planned on keeping in Iraq before Obama became president, these figures are much lower. It seems they have been quite effective too. Iraq is in much less danger. The government is retaking ground from ISIS. Our troops are not always doing the heavy lifting. Iraqis are stepping up.

Mopping up problem areas is not the same as starting new wars. It's not unreasoned to be in the region now. The Kurds have been a pretty stand-up group over time. Our being in the region helps them.

If we want folks to be our allies, we have to act like an ally. If we withdraw globally, who will be our ally? Pretty soon people would form alliances with Russia, China, Iran...

I don't want Russia and China to be devising and implementing their global wet dream, at our expense.

Russia has an economy the size of Italy, and your quaking about their global domination schemes? Please how explain how you fear China's global ambitions will cost the U.S. Taxpayer more than half a trillion dollars a year?

China now has a presence in Africa and the Americas. Russia now has a presence in the Middle-East and the Americas.

Foreign powers don't have to have a massive military to cause a lot of trouble. They move into a region and advise Leftist groups how to commit terrorism and swing regions away from us. That is not good. We don't want every nation in South America going hard Left. We don't want China or Russia to have a number of strong alliances down there.

Your way of doing things has us at constant war, with $20 trillion in debt to show for it. Better to end it by our choice and not simply because we can't afford to do it anymore.

My way of doing things, does keep us engaged globally. It winds up with us developing and nurturing alliances.

When done right, it helps us avoid situations that pop up like Iran and North Korea.

If we had stayed in Iraq in 2009 on, our costs would have been quite minimal. We didn't, and now we're having to step up to prevent trouble in the region.

Trump is not spending like drunken sailor, and then taking a pass on trying to get other costs under control. He is making big inroads in the U.S. with jobs and cutting the budget. It will remain to be seen how much we are spending in this region these days, but it's nowhere near half a trillion dollars per year.