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 “very serious retaliation.” The most prudent approach would be withdrawing the needless and counterproductive US military presence from Syria. Without such action, tragedies like this are likely to recur.
The United States currently maintains approximately 1,000 troops in Syria, a decrease from the roughly 2,000 stationed there when Trump took office in January 2025. These forces are holdovers from the counter-ISIS campaign launched by former President Barack Obama in 2015. Although ISIS’s so-called “caliphate” was dismantled in 2019, US troops have remained indefinitely. According to former US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford the “real (but unstated) reason the US is there is to block Iran from using a road coming from Iraq into Syria.”
Trump initially intended to withdraw troops from Syria during his first term; however, the American military presence persisted partly due to Pentagon efforts to undermine that plan. President Joe Biden continued the US deployment despite these forces—and others in Iraq—facing about 200 attacks following the Hamas terror assault on October 7, 2023, and the ensuing conflict in Gaza. The individual behind the recent attack was reportedly a Syrian security forces member, led by Ahmad al-Sharaa—Syria’s new president and former al-Qaeda affiliate.
Trump now has the chance to withdraw the remaining US forces from Syria—especially considering the country is fractured internally and beset by various foreign players pursuing their own interests after Assad’s removal. US priorities in Syria are minimal, focusing mainly on preventing terrorist threats to the homeland. The stationed troops are remnants of the ineffective and counterproductive Global War on Terror. Upholding a military presence in Syria is not only strategically flawed but also endangers American lives unnecessarily.
Trump has frequently asserted his intention to overhaul US policy toward the Middle East. The just-published National Security Strategy acknowledges the region’s limited strategic value and argues that US foreign policy should reduce focus on the Middle East. Still, the primary hurdle to such reform remains political determination—not a scarcity of feasible options. Washington cannot realize this vision while sustaining its broad military footprint and continually being entangled in the region’s issues.
True policy reform should begin with the swift withdrawal of all American soldiers from Syria.
Original article: www.cato.org
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