From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Trump’s Syria move draws criticism from Graham, Rubio
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleUS President Donald Trump’s decision to pull US troops from northeastern Syria, essentially abandoning the Syria Kurd fighters who fought alongside US against the Islamic State group, is drawing criticism from Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s closest allies, says Trump’s decision will allow IS to reemerge. The South Carolina Republican says Trump will “be held accountable.”
Graham says Trump’s decision “is against all sound military advice.” Graham says he hopes Trump “will reconsider, stop the bloodshed and reset the table before it’s too late.”
Graham says that if Trump continues along those lines, “then our foreign policy is in a very bad spot in the Middle East and to those who think the Mideast doesn’t matter to America, remember 9/11 we had that same attitude on 9/10 2001.”
Another Republican senator, Florida’s Marco Rubio, tells reporters that he doesn’t know what can be done to undo the harm that’s resulted from the withdrawal. Rubio says “there are some mistakes that are not easy to reverse. And there are some that are irreversible.”
I worry we will not have allies in the future against radical Islam, ISIS will reemerge, & Iran’s rise in Syria will become a nightmare for Israel.
I fear this is a complete and utter national security disaster in the making and I hope President Trump will adjust his thinking.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) October 16, 2019
The Times of Israel Community.