Controversial U.S. airstrikes against Iranian-linked targets in Syria will not help Washington facilitate peace talks with Damascus and will instead increase domestic pressure to restrain and even end U.S. operations in the war-torn country. The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden made no pledge to withdraw from Syria on the campaign trail. But the new White House’s apparent lack of a viable exit strategy, however, will likely reinforce existing anti-intervention sentiment in the United States, which re-surfaced for the first time under Biden after the U.S. military bombed Iranian-backed Iraqi militias on the Iraqi-Syrian border at Abukamal on Feb. 26. Unlike his predecessor, Biden’s mission in Syria no longer appears set on a sudden withdrawal of U.S. troops. But despite U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and other high-ranking officials suggesting that the White House might become more involved in diplomacy to try to end the Syrian civil war, the...
