"I want to get out. I want to bring our troops back home," said the president. We've gotten "nothing out of the $7 trillion (spent) in the Middle East in the last 17 years. … So, it's time."

Not so fast, Mr. President.

For even as Trump was speaking he was being contradicted by his Centcom commander Gen. Joseph Votel. "A lot of good progress has been made" in Syria, Votel conceded, "but the hard part … is in front of us."

Moreover, added Votel, when we defeat ISIS, we must stabilize Syria and see to its reconstruction.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had been even more specific:

"It is crucial to our national defense to maintain a military and diplomatic presence in Syria, to help bring an end to that conflict, as they chart a course to achieve a new political future."

But has not Syria's "political future" already been charted?

Bashar Assad, backed by Iran and Russia, has won his seven-year civil war. He has retaken the rebel stronghold of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus. He now controls most of the country that we and the Kurds do not.