Christopher Costa
We’ve seen all this before, the U.S. mission in Syria is not mission complete – it was not in 2018 – and it’s not done today. Syria remains an unfinished mosaic.
But a small U.S. presence in northeast Syria remains a strategic hedge against a resurgent ISIS and the center of gravity for maintaining much-needed pressure on a temporarily weakened Iran.
The Golan Heights is an apt metaphor for the transformation of the terrorism threat over the course of the last 8 years. U.S. policymakers will benefit from reconsidering Syria from atop the Golan plateau in the southwest corner of Syria to the plains below, as far as the eyes can see. From those heights looking downward – and considering Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, Lebanon, and against Iran throughout the broader region – Syria should remain a U.S. counterterrorism priority against jihadists and a field of rival competition among powers, great and emerging.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – a former Al Qaeda affiliate – Turkey, ISIS, competing Islamists, Syrian opposition groups, and Kurds, are all scrambling for greater influence in Syria. Until Assad fled Damascus, Russia sought greater influence there, while Iran dreamed of regional hegemony that now seems to be slipping away quicker than the mullahs in Tehran can react.
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