Worst decision

Graham: Pulling out of Syria ‘the single worst decision’ Trump could make

By CONNOR O’BRIEN

Pulling troops out of Syria would be a dangerous mistake that would unravel U.S. gains made against terrorist groups there, Sen. Lindsey Graham warned Sunday.

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,“ the South Carolina Republican argued that leaving Syria would wipe out gains against the Islamic State terrorist group.

“It’d be the single worst decision the president could make,” Graham said. “I’ve seen this movie before, when Obama did the same thing in Iraq.”

“When it comes to Syria, do not read the Obama playbook, one foot in, one foot out,” Graham advised. “This is a disaster in the making.”

Speaking in Ohio last week, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would end its military involvement in the war-torn Middle Eastern country “very soon.” The Trump administration has also frozen more than $200 million in recovery funds meant for Syria.

The Pentagon has acknowledged that there are approximately 2,000 troops in Syria, where the U.S. has sought to boost Arab and Kurdish militias in the campaign against ISIS. Trump said the United States was “knocking the hell out of ISIS,” which has lost the vast majority of its territory in both Iraq and Syria.

But Graham argued that removing U.S. troops would embolden the diminished ISIS and hand strategic victories to Iran and Russia, which support the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“There are over 3,000 ISIS fighters still roaming around Syria. We’ve got troops there to protect us and to protect the region,” he said.

“If we withdraw our troops anytime soon, ISIS would come back, the war between … Turkey and the Kurds would get out of hand, and you’d be giving Damascus to the Iranians.”

Graham also lauded Trump’s pick of Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, his physician, to lead the Veterans Affairs Department in place of VA Secretary David Shulkin, whose departure was announced last week.

Though questions remain on Capitol Hill and among veterans groups whether Jackson has the necessary experience to manage the nearly $200 billion bureaucracy, Graham praised him and predicted he would win Senate confirmation.

"You need somebody to go into the VA who's willing to fight the bureaucracy, and I think Adm. Jackson is a good pick because he's been on the battlefield, he knows what the fight's all about."