The Future of Syria is Not in American Hands

A Peshmerga soldier takes lead during urban combat maneuvering training Oct. 29, 2015, near Erbil, Iraq. Training at the building partner capacity sites is an integral part of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve’s multinational effort to train Peshmerga soldiers to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Tristan Bolden/Released)

Daniel Depetris writes at The American Conservative that Syria was never America’s job to solve, but for some reason there are troops on the ground there anyway. The war is entering its eighth year, and there’s little America can offer up in the way of a solution to the conflict. He writes (abridged):

Syria was never a crisis Washington could have (or should have) solved. With every American action, there was an opposite and unequal reaction from Moscow and Tehran, and it is the Syrian people who have paid the price. No outside power half a world away can solve Syria’s political issues. It will be for Syrians themselves to determine how they will govern what is left of their country, and neighbors with far more at stake than we have will be involved whether we like it or not.

With the war now entering its eighth year this March, the wisest course for the Trump administration is to detach itself. Nothing the United States can do will stop the conflict if the combatants and their enablers are intent on continuing it.