FWIW, author is from the Cato institute.
Time for America to Declare Victory in Syria and Come Home
Doug Bandow
Finally, administration policy is illegal. Congress never authorized U.S. military involvement to battle Assad’s government, Iranian forces, Iran-backed militias, Russia, or, if Operation Olive Branch goes spectacularly awry, Turkey. Indeed, Congress never bothered to authorize the fight against the Islamic State. The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force ran out years ago. To expand a fight that already was illegal simply reaffirms the death of the Constitution’s demand that the legislative branch approve military action.
The United States has no cause to remain involved in Syria. America has no interests of note in what has become the fulcrum of multinational conflict. Over the past month, observed the Washington Post’s David Ignatius: “A former al-Qaeda affiliate has shot down a Russian jet, using a Chinese-made missile; Kurdish forces have shot down a Turkish helicopter, using an Iranian-made missile; Iran has flown a drone into Israel, across Russian-monitored Syrian airspace; Israel has bombed twelve sites across Syria in retaliation; and the U.S. response to a Russian-backed sneak attack on oil-and-gas fields near Deir al-Zour killed perhaps scores of Russian mercenaries, overflowing the local morgue.â€
President Trump expects the American military to sort this out?
Continued at: http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/time-america-declare-victory-syria-come-home-24691?page=3
