Donald Trump is full of contradictions. That’s not news to anyone, or, at least it shouldn’t be if you’ve been living anywhere above ground since the summer of 2015. Saying one thing and then doing another, or contradicting seemingly unshakeable stances from years gone by, Trump in many ways is the king of contradiction.

And so too is his foreign policy strategy, especially when it comes to a situation as nuanced as the war in Syria. This has become increasingly apparent when the billionaire businessman has attempted to walk a fine line between overtly isolationist policy and the hawkish demands that have traditionally permeated the military-industrial complex.

While I agree that there is a line that needs to be walked between World Policeman and Hermit Kingdom, I fear Trump’s erraticism in doing so is incredibly dangerous.

Reports surfaced earlier today that President Trump is seeking to end U.S. commitment in Syria, with a preferable withdrawal happening in no later than six months. There are currently some 2,000 U.S. troops stationed in Syria in a support capacity. This urgency comes counter to the recommendations made by his own military advisors.

This urgency comes, despite the common knowledge of the same blunder President Obama made in 2011 in ending the Iraq War. Withdrawing our armed forces without creating any sort of residual or support force, the Obama administration left a power vacuum that was ultimately filled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

I don’t think anyone needs a refresher of the terror that ISIS has spread since its international emergence in 2014.

And so here we are again, history threatening to repeat itself. Trump, not too dissimilar from Obama, views the war in Syria as costly and sees the United States as overinvolved. Trump has repeatedly lamented the fact that other countries in the region are not contributing “their fair share”, though the numbers show that things aren’t so cut and dry.

President Obama too was overly concerned with the United States over involving and over committing itself on the world stage and wanted ardently to claim the mantle of savior of the people from one of George Bush’s wars.

That being said, the cautioners are present in the Trump administration, just as they were for Obama. Many, including Secretary of Defense James “Mad Dog” Mattis, have warned that a withdrawal of troops at the present moment would likely leave behind a bitterly divided and unstable Syria, ripe to be exploited by the revolving interests of Turkey, Russia, and Iran (not to speak of the still present terrorist groups in the region).

Personally, I’ve always found Trumpist isolationism strange in the context of the Donald being a Republican (in name at the very least). For years conservatives admonished Barack Obama for not playing a strong enough hand on the world stage. And yet here we are, a year and a half into the presidency of his successor, and there seems to be little problem with retreating from that same stage among those very same pundits.

Now, Trump’s administration has mediated the president’s stated desires to the media. They claim that there will be no withdrawal from Syria (or Afghanistan for that matter, if such a thing can even still be conceived of) until it can be claimed that we are “actually winning the battle”.

What does that mean though?

Defeating ISIS, stabilizing the region, and limiting the influence of such adversaries as Russia might be good places to start. But none of those goals have direct or easy paths given the multifaceted nature of the conflict.

And none of those can likely be achieved within six months. Not when the public is already war-weary and the president himself is lacking enthusiasm. Not when the country has been at war on and off in some capacity essentially since 2001.

I want the bloodshed in Syria to end as much as the next guy. I want peace and justice for the country’s people. Democracy nonnegotiable. I want a strong United States that will be a global leader, but not a global bully.

I think in some respects President Trump wants these things, if for no other reason than that they would make him look good.

In all honesty, though, it seems he is rather unsure of how to get there.