Trump defends Syria withdrawal amid outcry from Kurdish allies

October 7, 2019 in News by RBN Staff

source: www.msn.com
by William Cummings and David Jackson, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – Calling it a “stain on America’s honor,” Sen. Lindsey Graham on Monday denounced President Donald Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops out of northeastern Syria as Turkey prepares a military assault against Kurdish fighters who helped the U.S. battle the Islamic State.

Graham phoned into “Fox & Friends,” which Trump is known to watch regularly, to express his displeasure at the “impulsive decision by the president,” calling it “short-sighted and irresponsible.” He said the move has “undone all the gains we’ve made” and “thrown the region into further chaos.”

“This to me is just unnerving to its core,” Graham said.

The U.S.-backed Kurds under the Syrian Democratic Forces said their American allies “did not fulfill their obligations” as U.S. troops began to withdraw from their positions ahead of the expected Turkish military operation.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan considers the Kurdish forces in Syria to be terrorists allied with Kurdish insurgents within his country and has long threatened a military incursion into the area.

Foreign policy experts, as well as Republican and Democratic lawmakers, have warned that allowing Turkey into the region could lead to a massacre of the Kurds and been seen as a betrayal of a U.S. military ally.

President Donald Trump defended the move on Twitter Monday, writing the U.S. “was supposed to be in Syria for 30 days” and “that was many years ago.”

“We stayed and got deeper and deeper into battle with no aim in sight,” Trump tweeted.

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