Joshua Landis is the Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. He recently wrote the article that appeared in “Responsible Statecraft”: “US troops should have left Syria and Iraq long ago”. While Congress and the World focus on the wars between Israel and Hamas and Ukraine and Russia, less attention is focused on the conflicts in Syria and Iraq. Joshua grew up in the Middle East and spent many summers in Syria before the Civil War that started in 2011.  In this episode, recorded in February 2024, Joshua discusses the current dire situation in Syria and the ongoing conflict there, as well as US involvement in Iraq and the turmoil in the region.