Intel: How Syria policy zigzags are confounding US allies

The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the Donald Trump administration continues to walk back its pullout from Syria and is now considering leaving as many as 1,000 US troops in the country to defeat the remnants of the Islamic State. The Pentagon’s top general, Joint Chiefs Chairman Joseph Dunford, immediately pushed back, calling the report “factually incorrect.”

Why it matters: The internal debate represents another twist in the US administration’s Syria policy, which has gone through a series of hairpin turns over the past year. Even if US troops remain, the administration will have to work to regain the trust of its Syrian Kurdish allies, who are increasingly talking of turning to Bashar al-Assad to protect them against Turkish incursions.

Here’s a timeline of US shifts on Syria:

• March 29, 2018: President Trump tells an Ohio rally that US troops will be coming out of Syria “very soon.”