The content below comes from the newsletter This Week in War Powers News, provided by the Committee for Responsible Foreign Policy.

TOP STORY

President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of forces from Syria and elsewhereis appropriate and long overdue. It’s a necessary return to America’s traditional foreign policy. It’s a rejection of the neoconservative doctrine, which has contributed to the broken state of affairs in the Middle East. Read more.

What We’re Reading

George D. O’Neill Jr., chairman, Committee for a Responsible Foreign Policy: Senator Rand Paul’s new book, The Case Against Socialism, is a timely response to the misguided enthusiasm for socialism that’s taken hold in the United States. From well-known members of Congress to college students, there is a growing fervor to go down the road that inevitably leads to serfdom. Senator Paul directly refutes the popular argument that socialism’s failures are simply the result of poor execution or improper implementation. Read more.

Machiavellian Politics in Play with Russia, Turkey, & Syria

While the details are still being hammered out, as predicted, the Russians have brokered a deal for Kurdish forces to return to Damascus and fight the Turkish incursion. The latest aggression inside Syria pits two US-armed factions at odds with one another, each accusing the other of terrorism.
The latest entanglement presents a shift in US foreign policy as Turkey is a NATO ally, and Syria is trying to protect its integrity as a country.
What’s the good news? The deal effectively ensures US troops will NOT be a part of the fighting, and President Trump’s drawdown could open the door for more withdrawals before the 2020 election. Read more.