Graham: Trump Reconsidering Syria Pullout!

Local Editor

US Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters Sunday that "I feel pretty good about where we're headed" in Syria after suggesting that President Trump is "reconsidering" the planned pullout which had drawn bipartisan criticism and forced the resignation of War Secretary James Mattis.

Graham emerged from the White House after a two-hour lunch with Trump and said the president "told me some things I didn't know that make me feel a lot better about where we're headed in Syria."

"He promised to destroy ISIS. He's going to keep that promise," Graham said of Trump. "We're not there yet. But as I said today, we're inside the 10-yard line and the president understands the need to finish the job."

Earlier Sunday, Graham called on Trump to reverse his decision to withdraw US troops from Syria in a wide-ranging interview broadcast on CNN's "State of the Union."

"If we leave now, the Kurds are going to get slaughtered," Graham told host Dana Bash, adding that Trump had discussed the matter with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford and was "reconsidering how we do this."

"He's frustrated. I get it. People should pay more. They should fight more," Graham said. "But we're not the policemen of the world here. We're fighting a war against ISIS. They're still not defeated in Syria. I'm asking the president to make sure that we have troops there to protect us. Don't outsource our national security to some foreign power. If we leave now, the Kurds are going to get into a fight with Turkey, they could get slaughtered."

Graham echoed that theme outside the White House, telling reporters that the Kurds "stepped up when nobody else would" to fight ISIS.

Former State Department senior adviser Christian Whiton says it’s not the job of the US to create a Kurdish state in Syria.

"The last thing in the world we want is a war for Turkey and the Kurds," Graham said. "That takes pressure off ISIS. The last thing we want in addition to that is Iran to be the big winner here. So I think the president's going to finish the job when it comes to ISIS. I share his goal to withdraw our forces from Syria. I just want to do it in a smart way to make sure that Iran’s not the big winner."

In his interview with CNN, Graham also characterized former President Barack Obama's justification for pulling troops out of Iraq in 2011 as a "bunch of bullsh--, pardon my French."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team