Washington • There isn’t any good explanation for President Trump’s abrupt announcement last Wednesday that he was withdrawing all U.S. troops from Syria. Conservative hawks are livid, of course, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the decision a Christmas gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin. But even those who favor withdrawal seem bemused. International-relations analyst Stephen M. Walt cheered the troop withdrawal in a Foreign Policy article headlined: “Good Riddance to America’s Syria Policy: As usual, Donald Trump has done the right thing in the wrong way.”
Was the president trying to shore up his support with a base grown tired of foreign interventions?