September 19, 2018
An Unending U.S. War in Syria?
Ignoring uncomfortable truths about the Syria conflict keeps getting in the way of sober policymaking.
by Paul R. Pillar
Amid a week of attention-grabbing drama about the dysfunction of Donald Trump’s presidency, it almost escaped notice that his administration is putting U.S. troops in harm’s way in a foreign war for a new purpose—a purpose that does not entail countering a threat to the United States. Newly appointed special envoy for Syria James Jeffrey stated that under a “new policy†on Syria, the United States is “no longer pulling out by the end of the year.†This policy goes against what Trump had been saying not only in the presidential campaign about wanting less U.S. involvement in Middle Eastern wars but also, more recently and more specifically, about wanting to withdraw the twenty-two thousand U.S. soldiers now in Syria.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/paul-pillar/unending-us-war-syria-31547
