McConnell urges Trump to keep U.S. troops in northern Syria
WASHINGTON • Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged President Trump to “exercise American leadership” and keep U.S. troops in northern Syria, joining a chorus of Republican and Democratic lawmakers who warned the president against withdrawing from the area.
“American interests are best served by American leadership, not by retreat or withdrawal,” the Kentucky Republican said. He didn’t directly criticize Trump, but he reminded him that the Senate voted in January to keep U.S. troops in Syria, in reaction to a previous withdrawal plan announced by the White House.
The remarks by McConnell came as many Republicans broke publicly with Trump, including Colorado’s Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner and others who rarely speak out against the president. Many painted their disapproval in stark terms and floated ways to punish Turkey if it moved ahead with a military incursion in the region.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a close ally of Trump, called the pullout “a disaster in the making.” He warned it would ensure a comeback by Islamic State, or ISIS, and “will be a stain on America’s honor for abandoning the Kurds.”
The blowback came as American military personnel began moving away from the Syria-Turkey border, clearing the path for Turkey to launch an offensive against U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters. The Kurds have led the fight against Islamic State militants alongside the U.S., but Ankara considers them terrorists.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said the president was right to want to bring U.S. troops home, but that it would be “DISGRACEFUL if we sat idly by while Turkey slaughters the Kurds.” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, criticized the withdrawal as “terribly unwise.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tweeted that it would be a “grave mistake” for the Trump administration to retreat from Syria, while Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, called it a betrayal of the Kurds and said it “presages another humanitarian crisis.”
“President Trump should rethink this decision immediately,” said Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa.
Republicans’ alarm prompted several senators to reach across the aisle to set up a possible vote on sanctions against Turkey and to insist that Trump administration officials come before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to explain the president’s decision.
Graham said he plans to introduce bipartisan legislation with Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., to impose sanctions against Turkey if its forces invade Syria, and could call for Turkey’s suspension from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He said he expected sanctions against Turkey would get “veto-proof” support in Congress.
In his own comments, McConnell, who controls the flow of legislation to the Senate floor, didn’t address any vote on the matter.
Trump defended his decision and laid out a warning to Turkey. In tweets, he said it was time for the U.S. “to get out of these ridiculous Endless Wars” and warned that if Ankara “does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey.”
Sanction threats, analysts say, have curbed Turkish behavior in the past and could do so again.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a longtime skeptic of U.S. military actions overseas, backed Trump. “I stand with @realDonaldTrump today as he once again fulfills his promises to stop our endless wars and have a true America First foreign policy,” Paul tweeted.
The Senate has challenged the Trump White House previously on foreign policy. In July, Trump vetoed joint resolutions from Congress that sought to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In January, the GOP-controlled Senate advanced legislation that included language opposing Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan.
Turkey has insisted for years that Syria’s Kurdish rebel groups are terrorists and pose an existential threat.
Washington and Ankara have been trying to work out a deal to create a buffer zone along the Turkey-Syria border, but negotiations faltered, prompting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to set the stage for a new military operation. Erdogan told reporters in Ankara on Monday that Turkey could launch the operation at any time.
The U.S. has about 1,000 troops in Syria, where they have worked with the Kurdish-led forces on counterterrorism operations aimed at preventing a resurgence of Islamic State. After the collapse of the IS caliphate, the Kurds captured the fighters and their families, guarding them in prisons and camps.
Colorado Politics’ Ernest Luning contributed to this report.
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In this image provided by Hawar News Agency, ANHA, U.S. military vehicles travel down a main road in northeast Syria, Monday, Oct. 7, 2019. U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces in Syria said American troops began withdrawing Monday from their positions along Turkey’s border in northeastern Syria, ahead of an anticipated Turkish invasion that the Kurds say will overturn five years of achievements in the battle against the Islamic State group.