There is no shortage of policies and decisions made by Mr Donald Trump worth criticising, but since the earliest days of his presidential campaign, he has expressed at least one belief that deserves to be encouraged, not denigrated: The desire to disentangle the United States from costly overseas conflicts.

Mr Trump's non-interventionist impulse has always fit uncomfortably with the team he assembled, particularly the latest, more hawkish iteration in his ever-shifting foreign policy cast. For a time, he grudgingly deferred, allowing conflicts to escalate in virtually every theatre he inherited.