Syria pullout: A 2nd top official quits on Trump
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Brett McGurk, the US envoy to the global coalition fighting the Islamic State group, has resigned in protest over President Donald Trump鈥檚 abrupt decision to withdraw US troops from Syria.
He joins Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in an administration exodus of experienced national security figures. McGurk described Trump鈥檚 decision as a 鈥渟hock.鈥
Only 11 days ago, McGurk had said it would be 鈥渞eckless鈥 to consider IS defeated and therefore would be unwise to bring American forces home. McGurk decided to speed up his original plan to leave his post in mid-February.
鈥淭he recent decision by the president came as a shock and was a complete reversal of policy,鈥 he said in an email to his staff. 鈥淚t left our coalition partners confused and our fighting partners bewildered with no plan in place or even considered thought as to consequences.鈥
McGurk, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2015 and retained by Trump, said in his resignation letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the militants were on the run, but not yet defeated, and that the premature pullout of US forces from Syria would create the conditions that gave rise to IS.
Trump played down the development, tweeting Saturday night that 鈥淚 do not know鈥 the envoy and it鈥檚 a 鈥渘othing event.鈥 He noted McGurk planned to leave soon anyway and added: 鈥淕randstander?鈥
Shortly after news of McGurk鈥檚 resignation broke, Trump again defended his decision to pull all of the roughly 2,000 US forces from Syria in the coming weeks.
鈥淲e were originally going to be there for three months, and that was seven years ago 鈥 we never left,鈥 Trump tweeted. 鈥淲hen I became President, ISIS was going wild. Now ISIS is largely defeated and other local countries, including Turkey, should be able to easily take care of whatever remains. We鈥檙e coming home!鈥
Although the civil war in Syria has gone on since 2011, the US did not begin launching airstrikes against IS until September 2014, and American troops did not go into Syria until 2015.
McGurk, whose resignation is effective December 31, was planning to leave the job in mid-February after a US-hosted meeting of foreign ministers from the coalition countries, but he felt he could continue no longer after Trump鈥檚 decision to withdraw from Syria and Mattis鈥 resignation.
In his email to his staff, McGurk said: 鈥淚 worked this week to help manage some of the fallout, but 鈥 as many of you heard in my many meetings and phone calls 鈥 I ultimately concluded that I could not carry out these new instructions and maintain my integrity at the same time.鈥
Trump鈥檚 declaration of a victory over IS has been roundly contradicted by his own experts鈥 assessments, and his decision to pull troops out was widely denounced by members of Congress, who called his action rash.
Mattis, perhaps the most respected foreign policy official in the administration, announced on Thursday that he will leave by the end of February.
IS militants still hold a string of villages and towns along the Euphrates River in eastern Syria. The pocket is home to about 15,000 people, among them 2,000 IS fighters, according to US military estimates.
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