It may be stupid, but it is the right thing to do.
No, it's really not. The right thing -- both from a moral and pragmatic standpoint -- would be to ramp up our presence there (while encouraging our allies to do the same) and help them rebuild the region. Granted, pragmatic answer #2 would be installing dictators, giving them free reign to do whatever they want to put down the fighting (thus stopping the flood of refugees and occupying the terrorists), and just hope that they stay friendly to our interests thanks to economic manipulation and bribery. However, that will likely backfire eventually.
MOAR IMPERIALISM
no we do not need to ramp up our presence we need to withdraw from the world
We need to stop being the United States empire. We need to withdraw all of our ships, all military presence, all military bases.
You should probably familiarize yourself with what words actually mean before you use them. Working with foreign governments on a voluntary basis isn't "imperialism."
And a full withdrawal would catastrophic in places. As it is, neither the US nor UN intervenes enough when it comes to war crimes -- we've stood by while genocide was committed in Rwanda, etc, and right now we're turning a blind eye to the mass execution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. However, you might not care about brown lives, so I should remind you that some of those bases are in place to give us access to potential hostile nations in the possibility of war which would help to save American lives.
This, it would be utter nonsense honestly. We need to start talking about why we are needed. And weigh the positives to the negatives. What exactly is bad about us being there? There are many things and I am sure a lot of you have the answer. but one thing is true, and that we are needed at this point in time.
We cannot have another Vietnam, we pulled out and southern Vietnam was destroyed. We were the only shield between us and them. Yeah we were losing american soldiers and they were losing their entire country! We fought, no one else fought for them. We backed out because we got tired of fighting and being the only ones actually trying to help. Regardless of the reason we were there, whether it was to fight against communism, oil,imperialism, etc we were the good guys, even if it was too clean up our own mess. We put Ho Chi Minh in power, so we actually had an obligation to save those people.
Just like now, we screwed up the middle east when we removed saddam hussen, who was a evil dictator that performed genocide on his people. You know why we do this? oil you say? or maybe because no one want's another hitler. WW2 is the reason why we started this crusade of policing the world. No one wants to see that happen ever again. Our military is 100% necessary and you thing the world is bad now? Wait for world war 3, right now we are all that stands against it. To pull out or let either of these nations have there way cannot and should not be permitted.
Now I am not saying we are infallible and are possibly not going about it the right way. But we are needed there none the less.
This is how egotistical we are that we think the world needs Daddy America to tell them what to do and how to live their lives. Make way for freedom police.
God forbid people are allowed to shape their countries themselves. God forbid that they define themselves on principles other than our own and maybe challenge our economic dominance.
I know it's a difficult to swallow, but the US is the villain of the world