Trump's Decision To Withdraw Troops From Syria Makes A Blue Christmas For NatSec Pundits

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After over four years of involvement in the Syrian Civil War, President Trump is finally pulling U.S. troops out of Syria. While this may be welcome news for thousands of military families across the country, not every family will be celebrating. For every soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine who will now get to come home and see their children three months early, there is a national security pundit who is now out of work, no longer invited onto MSNBC to update enthralled viewers on what territories ISIS no longer holds.

For thousands of young men and women who have or currently serve in the military, the past seventeen years of sprawling American empire has brought them doses of tragedy, despair, and countless months away from their loved ones. But for people with expired security clearances and a willingness to embellish their resumes, it has meant paid appearances on cable news, guaranteed book placement in the curriculum of a Counter-terrorism 101 course at a for-profit college, and cool Twitter avatars holding up a glass of bourbon in the hot-tub, a guarantee to get women flocking to the DMs.

Now, with no American troop movements near Raqqa to analyze, many of these national security pundits are bound to find their work drying up right in the heart of the Christmas season. It is tough to see Donald Trump’s decision the end American intervention in Syria as anything less than a direct slap in the face to these brave warriors who risk their mentions every day to attempt to find a new explanation for why the Iraq War was actually a promising idea.

You see, prior to Trump, these pundits were reliably conservative voices. In the early 2000s, they ran to their mailboxes everyday after school, eagerly awaiting the newest issue of the Weekly Standard which they would read late into the night, furiously flipping the pages as they sat in their bed under framed photos of Milton Friedman and Paul Wolfowitz. As 2015 rolled around, the feverishly studied the foreign policy proposals of Jeb Bush, Lindsey Graham, and Marco Rubio to see who was willing to commit the largest amounts of troops to the most obscure countries.

With Trump, everything changed. These vociferous defenders of American might found themselves confronted with a President who nonchalantly disparaged The Troops and toyed with the idea of pulling back from our myriad of global military entanglements. So they did what any aggrieved constituency would do, they took to Twitter. Within months, national security pundits went from a reliably Republican bloc to one of the most powerful brigades of Trump Repliers out there. Previously obscure talking heads like John Schindler and Radio Free Tom quickly became heroes of The Resistance, and saviors to horny suburban moms everywhere.

Many will try to examine Trump’s decision in Syria through the lens of geopolitics or American national security. However, like most things Trump, the most accurate explanation is usually the pettiest. What better way to strike a blow against this new, powerful class of Trump enemy than to cut off their cable news appearances right before Christmas. There will certainly be fewer Thomas Friedman books under the tree this year.