Congress Muddles Washington’s Syria Strategy

Congress has taken several steps within the newly passed annual defense bill that are likely to exacerbate the Biden administration’s confused Syria policy.

For one, lawmakers voted to require the administration to craft a strategy for turning America-led counter-ISIS operations back to allies on the ground in northeast portions of the country, a withdrawal that more hawkish members say is premature. Although the terrorist caliphate was devastated in recent years by a U.S.-led military campaign, a U.N. report this year found that the group continues to operate in Iraq and Syria, even in its current diminished state. Meanwhile, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has started to reconsolidate his control over the country after a decade-long civil war in which his forces brutally put down an uprising.