Trump Again Gets Caught Up in Prediction of Syria Victory ‘by Tonight’

US-backed Kurds say search continues for ISIS remnants

Predictions of a victory within a matter of hours in Syria are nothing new. Recently, it seems such pronouncements out of US-backed Kurdish factions happen several times a week. On Thursday, President Trump bought in to the latest one.

Clutching a map of Syria in his hand, President Trump vowed that ISIS would be defeated “by tonight.” This isn’t the first time Trump has tried to get out in front of a prediction of victory, nor the first time he appears to have been wrong.

While the Kurdish SDF are as upbeat as ever about winning the battle for the village of Baghouz, they also confirmed that they are still carrying out searches around the “tiny” village looking for more ISIS fighters.

Though that makes it sound like everything is nearly over, past predictions of how many ISIS fighters were left have proven to be off by many thousands, and tens of thousands of civilians have also cropped up out of the village, repeatedly delaying the fight.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.