Foreign policy received very little attention at last night’s debate, and the few questions that were asked were mainly limited to talking about Syria and Russia. If one wanted to hear from the candidates on the fifteen years of war in Afghanistan, the ongoing destruction of Yemen enabled by U.S. support for the Saudis, the peace deal in Colombia, tensions between India and Pakistan, or indeed anything else around the world, last night was a disappointment. The discussion of Syria policy, such as it was, told us nothing we didn’t already know: Clinton is eager to escalate U.S. involvement there, and Trump is mostly just confused.

Clinton reiterated her support for a “no-fly” zone and safe zones, and Trump mostly filibustered the question by talking about almost anything else with random references to the Libyan war and the nuclear deal with Iran. He and Raddatz got into a bit of a fight because she wanted him to outline his “strategy” for Syria, and Trump couldn’t or didn’t want to beyond saying that he wants to attack ISIS. That exchange prompted his later complaints about unfair treatment. Trump once again failed to use Clinton’s foreign policy record against her effectively, and once again failed to offer anything resembling coherent policies of his own.

The failure to ask the candidates about Yemen was remarkable in light of the massacre of civilians at the funeral hall in Sanaa that happened just the day before, but it was unfortunately not at all surprising. The war on Yemen has coincided with almost the entirety of the 2016 presidential cycle, and it has never once been the subject of a debate question at any point for candidates in either party. U.S. support for the war is one of the Obama administration’s greatest errors, and it would be good for voters to know the positions of the candidates on this indefensible policy. If last night’s debate was any indication, both candidates will be able to conclude their campaigns without having to answer a single question about it.

Trump overall had a poor night, and while he may have “stopped the bleeding” with respect to public defections by Republicans he did nothing to dig himself out of the hole he is in. As the trailing candidate, Trump needed an unambiguous win and/or a Clinton implosion, and he got neither. Clinton’s performance was underwhelming, and a more capable opponent could have used her desire for an expanded war in Syria against her, but all she needed to do was to hold the lead she already had. The initial reactions to the debate suggest that she did that, and that leaves Trump in a very bad spot heading into the third and final debate later this month.