By Benjamin H. Friedman and Justin Logan
American policy on Syria took a U-turn Wednesday with the news that President Donald Trump was preparing for a “full” and “rapid” withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Syrian civil war. After the news broke, Trump took to Twitter to declare, “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there.”
Trump is right to accept victory in Syria. By September, the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria had lost 99 percent of the territory its vaunted caliphate once held, according to a Pentagon inspector general’s report. With the last vestiges of ISIS territory in Syria falling to U.S.-backed forces in recent days, the goal that drew America into Syria is achieved.
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