Donald Trump was mostly correct in his recent social media post on Syria, in which he argued in block capitals: “This is not our fight. Let it play out.” The United States “should have nothing to do with” Syria’s mess, at least in a military sense. Leaving US forces there, whether or not Bashar al-Assad’s fall ends the civil war, is pointless and dangerous.
But the question remains whether the President-elect, this time around, will enact foreign policies consistent with his sensible rhetoric. His record on Syria, after all, is typically unpredictable. As president, he famously announced in 2018 that he was pulling out troops.
