Originally Published in Madras Courier
Editorial Note
For the United States, courting al-Sharaa could turn out to be a costly gamble.
“He died like a dog. He died like a coward,” remarked US President Donald Trump in 2019, when US Special Operations forces hunted down Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the dreaded terrorist group ISIS, in a daring nighttime raid in Northwestern Syria. In 2025, Donald Trump welcomed Ahmed al-Sharaa, the interim President of Syria, to the Oval Office.