Wednesday in a move that seemed to blindside most on Capital Hill, President Trump via tweet announced the U.S. withdrawal of 2000 ground troops in Syria.
In a follow-up tweet from Wednesday President Trump issued a video of himself explaining that ISIS has been defeated in Syria.
Trump: We’ve been fighting a long time in Syria. I’ve been President almost two-years and we’ve really stepped it up and we have won against ISIS. We’ve beaten them and we’ve beaten them badly, we’ve taken back the land and now it’s time for our troops to come back home.
Trump: I get very sad when I have to write letters or call parents or wives or husbands of soldiers who have been killed fighting for our country. It’s a great honor, we cherish them, but it’s heartbreaking, there’s no question about it’s heartbreaking.
Trump: Now we’ve won it’s time to come back. They’re getting ready you are going to see them soon. These are great American heroes. These are great heroes of the world because they fought for us, but they’ve killed ISIS who hurts the world and we are proud to have done it and I will tell you they are up there looking down on us and there is nobody happier or more proud of their families to put them in a position where they have done such good for so many people. So our boys, our young women, our men, they are all coming back and they are coming back now. We won and that’s the way want it, and that’s the way [he points to the sky] they want it.
On Thursday in a string of tweets that started at 12:04 a.m., President Trump defended his decision to withdrawal the troops from Syria, by quoting, Col. Jim Carafano, who is the Vice President of Heritage Foundation’s National Security team, and Fox News show host Laura Ingraham.
Continuing the theme starting at 6:25 a.m., President Trump quotes Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Mike Lee (R-UT), both of whom according to President Trump, praised his decision to withdrawal the troops.
He went on to explain that his decision should be “no surprise,” adding that “Russia, Iran, Syria, & others,” are the “local enemy of ISIS,” he concluded by stating “we were doing there [their] work.”
President Trump went on to ask if the USA wants to be “the Policeman in the Middle East, get NOTHING,” in return, “but spending precious lives and trillion of dollars protecting others,” he added that in almost all cases the others we are protecting, “do not appreciate what we are doing.”
He concluded his Syria withdrawal defense by stating that Russia, Iran, Syria, and many others, “are not happy about the U.S. leaving, despite what the Fake News says,” he continued by writing, “because now they will have to fight ISIS and others, who they hate, without us.” In conclusion he writes that if ISIS “hits us they are doomed!”
Mediaite has the video of the segment that President Trump was quoting from.
Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah was on Fox News where he explained that he “couldn’t agree more with the President’s decision,” and explained that this decision was in fact the opposite of an Obama like decision.
One of my colleagues just called this an Obama-like decision. I couldn’t disagree more and I couldn’t agree more with the president’s decision.
Look, by definition, this is the opposite of an Obama decision. Obama got us involved. Trump has taken us out.
Quote via Real Clear Politics
Video of Lee’s appearance on Fox News can be found @ Real Clear Politics.
Opinion: No, but at the same time, I would rather have a President that doesn’t make these rash decisions to the surprise of our military, our allies, our Congressional reps, via Twitter and I certainly do not want lives wasted when a job is only sort of done. I feel if we are to in fact fight a war, the plan should be to complete the task, not leave a vacuum or mess in it’s wake.
Russian News Agency TASS is reporting that according to, Russian Federation Council member Frants Klintsevich, “Washington has failed to achieve US own objectives in Syria, which included toppling the incumbent legitimate government,” he went on to say, “in case the United States has really decided to pull all their troops out of Syria, it does not mean that they have accomplished their mission there. If anything, they failed to replace the government in Syria by ousting Bashar al-Assad. As for Islamic State (a terrorist group banned in Russia), the Americans initially did not strive to destroy that quasi-state, continuing to play their games with it.”
TASS reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin while speaking Thursday at his annual news conference told reporters that he “by and large,” agrees with President Trump over the defeat of ISIS, Putin went on to say, “Is the presence of US troops necessary there [in Syria]? No, it is not,” he added, “Let us not forget that the presence of US troops in Syria is not legitimate, that it has no UN Security Council resolution to hinge on.
Islamic Republic News Agency had this to say about President Trump’s decision after quoting Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, “The United States has been leading an illegal international coalition unauthorized by the UN Security Council under the pretext of fighting ISIS terrorist organization. The majority of the Coalition’s airstrikes have instead targeted civilian locals, causing scores of appalling massacres and a large-scale destruction to infrastructure.”
Turkey’s state run media so far has only responded by quoting President Trump’s tweets.
