Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators are urging President Donald Trump to reconsider his decision to withdraw American troops from the northern border of Syria.
Calling it the fulfillment of a campaign promise to withdraw from “endless war” in the Middle East on Monday, Trump said American troops would step aside for an expected Turkish attack on the Kurds, who have fought alongside Americans for years. Sunday night the White House had said the U.S. would get its troops out of the way of the Turkish forces.
That announcement came after Trump spoke by phone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania called for Trump to reconsider his decision.
“The president’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from the northern Syrian border poses a significant threat to our national security and risks reversing the progress made in the region to destroy ISIS,” Toomey said. “It could also lead to war between Turkey and Syrian Kurds, a result that will boost enemy regimes in Syria, Iran, and Russia.”
Taking this action could harm America’s reputation internationally, he cautioned.
“This betrayal of the Kurds will also severely harm our credibility as an ally the world over,” Toomey said. “President Trump should rethink this decision immediately.”
Trump said he understood criticism from fellow GOP leaders but disagreed. He said he could also name supporters, but he didn’t, according to the Associated Press.
Democrat Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, a vocal critic of Trump, added his voice to those calling Trump’s move a mistake.
“Kurdish forces have been a steadfast U.S. ally and President Trump has shamefully betrayed them,” Casey said. “Thousands of Kurds died in the fight against ISIS only to be abandoned by President Trump, whose fascination with authoritarian dictators, like Erdogan, seems to control U.S. foreign policy.
“Turning our back on the Kurdish people in their time of need will make our nation less safe. Potential allies will no longer trust our government,” he continued. “President Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops from Syria also underscores the problematic nature of his continuing involvement in his business, the Trump Organization. Since President Trump has not fully divested from his private business, our nation is left to wonder whether the fact that the Trump Organization has dealings in Turkey impacted his decision.”
According to the Associated Press, even Trump’s staunchest Republican congressional allies expressed outrage at the prospect of abandoning Syrian Kurds who had fought the Islamic State group with American arms and advice.
“A catastrophic mistake,” said Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 House Republican leader. “Shot in the arm to the bad guys,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
Trump, in late afternoon remarks to reporters, appeared largely unconcerned at the prospect of Turkish forces attacking the Kurds, who include a faction he described as “natural enemies” of the Turks.
“But I have told Turkey that if they do anything outside of what we would think is humane … they could suffer the wrath of an extremely decimated economy,” Trump said.
In recent weeks, the U.S. and Turkey had reached an apparent accommodation of Turkish concerns about the presence of Kurdish fighters, seen in Turkey as a threat. American and Turkish soldiers had been conducting joint patrols in a zone along the border. As part of that work, barriers designed to protect the Kurds were dismantled amid assurances that Turkey would not invade.
The AP reported that Graham said Turkey’s NATO membership should be suspended if it attacks into northeastern Turkey, potentially annihilating Kurdish fighters who acted as a U.S. proxy army in a five-year fight to eliminate the Islamic State’s so-called caliphate. Graham, who had talked Trump out of a withdrawal from Syria last December, said letting Turkey invade would be a mistake of historic proportion and would “lead to ISIS reemergence.”
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
