Trump Defends His Syrian Decision and Putin Agrees

President Trump on Thursday upheld his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria via a series of tweets. While legislators from both parties are skeptical toward this move, Russian President Vladimir Putin fully endorsed Trump’s new military strategy in the Middle East.

In his morning tweets, Trump claimed that America should finally reject its long-time role as “the Policeman of the Middle East” when it is “getting NOTHING but spending precious lives and trillions of dollars protecting others who, in almost all cases, do not appreciate what we are doing.”

“Do we want to be there forever?” Trump continued. “Time for others to finally fight Russia, Iran, Syria & many others are not happy about the U.S. leaving, despite what the Fake News says, because now they will have to fight ISIS and others, who they hate, without us. I am building by far the most powerful military in the world. ISIS hits us they are doomed!”

As of now, the U.S. has allied with Arab and Kurdish forces in Syria and deployed over 2,000 military personnel to aid their war efforts. This time, the U.S. will not only withdraw troops. Advisors who are currently helping the war-torn country rebuild its key infrastructure will also be recalled back to America. Trump’s policy is expected to negatively affect basic public good provisions in Syria including water, electricity and education for children.

Trump’s Thursday tweets built on his controversial assertion on Wednesday that ISIS has already been defeated. “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,” he said in a video when in fact, ISIS still had command over about 150,000 fighters in Syria.

The administration’s top military advisers dismissed such declaration of victory as premature. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, for one, resigned due to he and Trump’s differences over Syria as well as other security problems.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joe Dunford, also showed an unwillingness to follow Trump’s order. Refusing to provide an estimated date of military withdrawal, Dunford signaled that he would see his work as finished only when the country became truly stabilized and government forces had enough capacity to secure peace in the region.

But contradicting Trump came at a cost. A few days after issuing his statement, the president announced that Dunford would step down from his post and General Mark Milley would take over his job.

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-SC), though a support of Trump’s policies in most areas, described the Syria decision as “a disaster.” She drafted a nonbinding resolution for the Senate to urge Trump to recalibrate his Syrian strategy. “I think there’s a lot of votes for it,” Graham said during a news conference.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also criticized the president for making important military decisions in “a cavalier fashion” and delivering “a Christmas present to Vladi­mir Putin.”

Indeed, Putin welcomed the U.S. military withdrawal with open arms. During a news conference on Thursday, Putin said “Donald is right, I agree with him,” referring to Trump’s statement that ISIS already lost the war in Syria. “If US has decided to withdraw its contingent, it’s the right thing to do.”

Featured image via Aaref Watad/AFP