By Jon HOFFMAN
This past weekend, the Islamic State (ISIS) killed three Americans in Syria-two US soldiers and one civilian contractor-marking the first US casualties in the country since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
President Donald Trump has vowed to respond with "very serious retaliation." His best course of action is removing the needless and counterproductive US military presence in Syria. Absent such a move, disasters like this will only continue.
The United States currently maintains roughly 1,000 troops in Syria, down from the approximately 2,000 stationed in the country when Trump assumed office in January 2025. They are remnants of the counter-ISIS mission initiated by then-President Barack Obama in 2015. Yet, even after the destruction of ISIS's so-called "caliphate" in 2019, US troops have remained in Syria indefinitely. Why ? Because, as former US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford noted, the "real (but unstated) reason the US is there is to block Iran from using a road coming from Iraq into Syria."
To his credit, Trump did have plans to withdraw troops from Syria during his first administration, but America's military presence remained, thanks, in part, to efforts by the Pentagon to sabotage a withdrawal. President Joe Biden maintained the US presence in Syria, despite these troops-and those stationed in Iraq- coming under attack roughly 200 times following the Hamas terror attack on October 7, 2023, and Israel's subsequent war in Gaza. The individual responsible for this recent attack was reportedly a member of the Syrian security forces, led by Ahmad al-Sharaa-Syria's new president and a former member of al-Qaeda.
Trump has an opportunity to bring the remaining troops in Syria home-particularly as the country remains rife with internal divisions and plagued by an array of competing external actors trying to advance their own agendas after Assad's removal. The United States has very limited interests in Syria, chief of which is preventing terrorist attacks against the American homeland. US troops in Syria represent a remnant of the failed and counterproductive Global War on Terror. Maintaining a US military presence in Syria is not only strategic malpractice but also a direct affront to the lives of American troops.
Trump has repeatedly claimed he intends to reform US Middle East policy. The recently released National Security Strategy correctly recognizes the limited strategic importance of the Middle East and contends that the region should no longer consume US foreign policy. However, the chief obstacle to such a policy change has never been a lack of viable alternatives-it remains a matter of political will. Washington cannot realize this vision while maintaining its expansive military presence in the Middle East and constantly getting dragged back into the region's affairs.
Trump should pursue real policy change, starting with the immediate removal of all US troops from Syria.
Original article: www.cato.org