Trump’s Gift to Iran?

President Trump reportedly has ordered the Pentagon to withdraw all US troops from Syria as soon as possible — within months. That risks giving a giant gift to Iran.

Trump is right that the defeat of ISIS is “close to 100 percent” completed. And spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says that once that’s done, “there’s no longer a need” for the 2,000 remaining US troops “to be there.”

But pulling all forces out would be a big mistake — like the one Trump warned against a few months ago, when (in announcing a troop surge in Afghanistan), he declared: “A hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum that terrorists — including ISIS and al Qaeda — would instantly fill.”

The same holds true in Syria, and more — because a vacuum there would be filled by Iran and Russia, as well as clearing the way for Turkey’s campaign against the Kurdish fighters who helped defeat ISIS. It would also free President Bashar al-Assad to conclude his bloody war of atrocities against his own people.

It’s one thing for Trump to keep America out of the work of reconstruction and ensuring long-term stability, and to demand that Mideast allies put “more skin in the game.”

But it’s another thing entirely to ignore his military team’s fear that a complete US pullout could bring either Iranian dominance of the entire northern Middle East, or a wider regional war.

We understand Trump wants an end to US military involvement in the Middle East; truth be told, an early withdrawal would be politically popular.

But a continued US military presence will act as a much-needed check against more menacing powers like Iran. It need not risk keeping America trapped in a quagmire.

In a situation with no good alternatives, a complete pullout would be the worst one.