A MAJOR GAP BETWEEN THE PUBLIC AND THE ESTABLISHMENT: Americans OK With Leaving Syria and Afghanistan: A new poll finds widespread war-weariness. It was a mistake to leave Iraq in 2011. Nothing convinces me that it’s a comparable mistake to leave Syria or Afghanistan today. In the case of Afghanistan, it will never be over unless we stop the Pakistanis from supporting the Taliban. We’re not going to do that, for a variety of reasons, so it’s just whack-a-mole forever.