Oh this has been cooking for the last few months!

Trump has advocated for Peace Through Strength and has been following that. This change is just the next thing to revamp what people think of our military.

I would also note that while they might not seem serious some of the groups like ISIS were very very deadly and inspired/caused attacks across the world. Our arming of the Kurds and placing Special Forces in Syria helped prevent them from becoming a bigger more serious foe.... Also they killed a lot of Russians via the Wagner Group. Never forget the 200 v like 12? They got absolutely toasted.

I also personally factor in that in general as a rule it is safe to say the world is sliding backwards towards more conflict and possibly large scale conflict. Getting ahead of that might not be the worst idea.