As in Kipling’s day, military deployments needed to prevent unknowable threats

By Michael Barone

Published December 26, 2018 7:03pm ET

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As in Kipling’s day, military deployments needed to prevent unknowable threats — Another 1,000 U.S. troops will not "fix" Afghanistan. Neither will another 5,000, or another 10,000 or 20,000. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Justin T. Updegraff, Operation Resolute Support via AP) | Sgt. Justin Updegraff

The numbers are small, the terrain unfamiliar. The cast of characters is chaotic and the clash of interest hard to decipher.

Nevertheless, President Trump’s sudden, perhaps impulsive decision to withdraw 2,000 American military personnel from northeastern Syria, and the resignation by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in response, has raised a question of continuing pertinence in American policymaking.

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Afghanistan Donald Trump Jim Mattis Syria