When President Trump met with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and other senators on Wednesday to discuss foreign policy, the president told the group that he planned to move forward with drawing down troops in Syria and Afghanistan, which he had originally announced before Christmas.

Paul, one of Trump’s strongest supporters of finally winding down America’s wars in both countries, tweeted after the meeting:





This prompted Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, to reply:



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Crenshaw’s tweet was sent in the wake of four Americans being killed in Syria, two of them U.S. service members, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State.

While Crenshaw is certainly entitled to his opinion, particularly given his service and sacrifice as a member of the U.S. Navy, it appears that not all of his fellow military members and veterans agree with him.

In fact, most U.S. military members appear to agree with the president that the U.S. has been fighting these wars for too long.

While there is currently no data is available on Syria specifically, this month the Smithsonian conducted a poll asking military members both past and present if America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have gone on for too long, surveying 109 active duty military personnel and 922 veterans.

Smithsonian Magazine noted that "as far as we know, this survey was the first one to pose that question to current and former service members."

So, what did this apparently unprecedented, one-of-a-kind poll find?

The overwhelming majority of respondents, a whopping 84 percent, agreed that the "current occupation" of Iraq and Afghanistan "has been going on too long." The same poll, however, revealed that 83 percent believed it was important to continue fighting the war on terror. Whether this meant continued troop deployment was not addressed.

However, a YouGov poll conducted in October revealed that 69 percent of veterans wanted to bring the troops home from Afghanistan. This is more than the 61 percent of nonmilitary Americans who also agree with troop withdrawal.

It would probably behoove us to pay more attention to the opinions of those who actually had to fight these wars.

In that vein, the YouGov poll also showed, “Just 22% of the Americans, and 24% of current and former service personnel, say the mission in Afghanistan has been successful.”

Again, maybe our soldiers know something the rest of us don’t?

Nor are these attitudes new. In 2011, when the U.S. war in Afghanistan was only a decade old, a Pew Research Center poll found that 1 in 3 veterans believed the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were a mistake .

Regarding Crenshaw’s insistence that “We go there so that they don’t come here. It’s that simple,” this same poll showed (emphasis mine), “ About half of post-9/11 veterans (51%) say relying too much on military force creates hatred that leads to more terrorism, while four-in-ten endorse the opposite view: that overwhelming force is the best way to defeat terrorism.” Similarly, there have been plenty of studies indicating that constant interventionism breeds as much, if not more, terrorism than it thwarts.

According to veterans and some experts, endless military intervention as a solution to terrorism is not as “simple” as Crenshaw says.

In addition to veterans’ attitudes, this month a Morning Consult/Politico poll showed that the majority of Americans overall agree with President Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Syria.

“I really am proud of the president for making an argument that really no president in recent history has made and that is that we’ve been at war too long in too many places and he’s really going to make a difference,” Paul said after meeting with Trump at the White House on Wednesday.

Indeed. If he follows through on finally bringing home our troops, President Trump has a monumental opportunity to change U.S. foreign policy in a way that could not only make the country safer but is also more respectful of the sacrifice of those who serve.

It’s something most of America’s actual troops, today and yesterday, appear to want too.

Jack Hunter (@jackhunter74) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. He is the former political editor of Rare.us and co-authored the 2011 book, The Tea Party Goes to Washington, with Sen. Rand Paul.