Robert A. Lovett, U.S. secretary of defense from 1951 to 1953 in the Truman administration, said that faced with political crises carrying great risks for small gains: "Forget the cheese; let's get out of the trap." Since the end of the Cold War and the resulting upsurge of triumphalism and exceptionalism among its policymakers and public intellectuals, the United States has been serially mousetrapped by the cheesy allure of Pax Americana across North Africa and the Middle East. The era of grand delusions may be drawing to a close.
For over seven years, the Syrian crisis has shone a spotlight on the receding role of morality, legality, strategic wisdom and institution-building in underpinning world order. It was the terrain on which the optimistic Arab Spring of 2011 morphed into the bleak winter of the restoration of Arab autocracy.
Over the summer, the U.S. settled on a policy of keeping troops in Syria, both to act as a bulwark against Iran' regional ambitions and to ensure the crushing defeat of the Islamic State extremist group. As recently as in August the Pentagon believed there were 14,500 IS fighters still active in Syria. In an abrupt policy flip-flop that caught the Pentagon, aides and allies off guard, President Donald Trump has declared victory and ordered a full and rapid withdrawal of over 2,000 U.S. troops.