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Pentagon Chief in Spotlight over Trump’s Syria Plans

Pentagon Chief in Spotlight over Trump’s Syria Plans
folder_openAmericas... access_time5 years ago
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By Staff, Agencies

The fate of Acting Pentagon Chief Patrick Shanahan was thrown into the spotlight Wednesday following media reports of a fraught discussion he had with senior US lawmakers over Syria.

The exchange took place on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference last weekend, where politicians grilled Shanahan on US President Donald Trump's contentious decision to withdraw his troops from Syria.

Many in Trump's own Republican Party have questioned the wisdom of the move, which the president announced in December after declaring victory over Daesh [the Arabic acronym for terrorist ‘ISIS/ISIL’ group] in Syria -- where thousands of terrorists remain and fighting continues around their last holdout.

According to The Washington Post, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, the leader of a delegation of lawmakers who had gone to Munich, asked Shanahan if he had told European allies that the US troop presence would be zero by April 30.

"Yes, that's been our direction," Shanahan reportedly said.

Shanahan had been trying to convince allies to maintain a troop presence in Syria after the US pulls out, but struggled to persuade other countries why they should risk their forces with America gone.

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