In practice U.S. policy was an extraordinary embarrassment. The Obama administration demanded al-Assad’s ouster, giving false hope to—and discouraging negotiation by—his opponents. America’s search for “moderate” insurgents was farcical, expensive and ineffective. The United States ended up backing the local affiliate of Al Qaeda, which struck America on 9/11, against Damascus. Only in the fight against the Islamic State did the Obama and Trump administrations succeed, largely by relying on the Kurds before selling them out.

Had this disastrous policy been implemented by countries as diverse as Japan and the United Kingdom there would have been multiple government resignations in shame. But being a superpower means that one never has to say that they are sorry. Washington just blunders forward, creating geopolitical catastrophe and humanitarian carnage, before moving on to its next adventure, doing the same again.

Washington should leave Syria. That nation’s ultimate development matters little to the United States. There is little left of ISIS, which can be dispatched by the multitude of capable states and forces that America essentially bailed out with its involvement. Sticking around Syria’s north won’t force al-Assad to leave office or lead to democracy. Iranian and Russian involvement in Syria poses no threat to America. Rather than extending their power, their intervention is a desperate attempt to preserve influence with a regime that is but a shadow of its former self. Washington should drop its foolhardy attempt to reengineer the Middle East and allow countries there to sort out their own problems.

Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is author of Foreign Follies: America’s New Global Empire.