The last of the U.S. troops are out of Syria. There are no U.S. bases there after more than a decade of war hawks in official positions demanding we stay for constantly shifting reasons.
The U.S. military may provide some advice and support to the Syrian army, but without permanent outposts, The New York Times reports.
U.S. troops first entered Syria in 2015 to support Kurdish rebels against the Islamic State group, which lost its last Syrian territory in 2019. President Donald Trump flip-flopped several times in his first term about whether U.S. troops would stay. He declared a U.S. withdrawal in December 2018, backtracked on it, declared another withdrawal in October 2019, and backtracked again after neighboring Turkey invaded Kurdish-held areas of Syria.
U.S. officials pushed to keep the military in Syria.
The Syrian civil war (and the major Russian-Iranian presence) ended with the December 2024 revolution, led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former commander in Al Qaeda who became a U.S.-friendly reformer. The former terrorist is doing okay so far after some rough patches. The new president shed Arab clothing for state affairs and wears $400 suits. He appears interested in protecting minority sects and Christians.
However, under pressure, the Trump administration considered keeping U.S. forces in Syria for good.
Events in Syria seem to have made that option completely unpalatable. In December 2025, a Syrian police officer shot up a meeting between Syrian and U.S. troops in Palmyra, killing three Americans. It was a reminder that despite the new Syrian government’s eagerness to please Washington, many of its rank-and-file supporters still resented the foreign army on their soil.
Then, in January 2026, negotiations between the Kurdish rebels and the new Syrian government broke down. The Syrian army launched a lightning offensive that forced Kurds to submit to central government rule.
The U.S. brought the ISIS prisoners to Iraq over fears of a prison break. That is what brought us there in the first place.
The Iran war proved our soldiers are too vulnerable to missiles and drones. U.S. posts in Syria were ramshackle. We lost three U.S. troops, and there would be no more. We left with a U.S.-friendly government in power and almost no violence.
All’s well.