After speaking with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the phone, President Trump announced the United States would remove all military personnel from Northern Syria.
The withdrawal comes ahead of Turkey’s plans to invade the region and take into custody all ISIS fighters captured in recent years.
Trump justified the decision by declaring that he wanted to end American participation in endless wars.
However, some of the president’s staunchest congressional supporters are bitterly criticizing the move, saying that we’re abandoning our Kurdish allies.
Meanwhile, Syria is warning the Turks that they “will not hesitate to turn any unprovoked attack by Turkey into an all-out war on the entire border.” (Fox News)
The White House announced late Sunday that Turkey will soon move forward with a planned military operation in northeast Syria, as U.S. troops who have been deployed and operating with Kurdish-led forces in the area began pulling back from their positions.
Some officials see the move as a betrayal of the Kurds, whom the U.S. supported against ISIS for years.
Speaking on “Fox & Friends” Monday morning, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called it an “impulsive decision” by Trump that would undo U.S. gains in the region and give ISIS fighters a “second lease on life.”
* Ensures ISIS comeback.
* Forces Kurds to align with Assad and Iran.
* Destroys Turkey’s relationship with U.S. Congress.
* Will be a stain on America’s honor for abandoning the Kurds.— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) October 7, 2019
But Trump vociferously defended the decision in a string of tweets early Monday morning, saying the ISIS “Caliphate” has been defeated and lamenting that the U.S. was in the region years longer than planned. Reprising the rhetoric on foreign wars he has often used on the campaign trail, he described the fight as a regional conflict for Turkey and other countries to wage — not America’s problem.
The United States was supposed to be in Syria for 30 days, that was many years ago. We stayed and got deeper and deeper into battle with no aim in sight. When I arrived in Washington, ISIS was running rampant in the area. We quickly defeated 100% of the ISIS Caliphate,…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2019
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