[barnesto]

You realize what has happened in the last four years, right? Four peace accords in the Middle East. ISIS has been destroyed. The US has basically pulled out of Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. The Kurds and Turks aren't killing each other any longer. AND the US hasn't started another war - something that hasn't happened in decades as in going back to WWII.

[realmod]

The Kurds and Turks are for sure still killing each other, and Turkey is expanding further into Kurd-controlled areas in Iraq & Syria. And Afghanistan is and has been a failure; the Taliban have been regaining land and power, and further US withdrawal from Afghanistan will set it back to 2000 ( the war and misery would be for nothing ). One of the primary missions in Syria was to oust Al Assad, but he is still in power and controls near-entire Syria. Iraq is still a war hotbed, and it seems like more entities are joining the fight to control it. Then there is also all the proxy wars, for example, Yemen.

The peace accords are for sure good for the region and are setting it on a brighter path. But the US deserves no credit for withdrawing or starting new wars. And none of this is to dismiss or "whatabout" China's horrible actions but lets not lie to ourselves about the actions of US and allies - We have committed plenty of evil.

[puranjay]

Should the US not starting a new war and finally pulling out of a region it wasn't supposed to be in in the first place really be something to applaud?

[SuoDuanDao]

Those are heartening to see from up here in the cheap seats, but from the outside this by no means looks like a new direction that the political class have gotten behind. The majority of actors in the US who benefited from the Bush-Clinton consensus are still in place and don't look like they intend to take the changes lying down.

I think we'll all breath a sigh of relief if the US still has a pacifist foreign policy in 2029, but until then I'm waiting for an 'empire strikes back' moment.