WASHINGTON – US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned Thursday, leading achorus of protests at home and abroad after President Donald Trump ordereda complete troop pullout from Syria and a significant withdrawal fromAfghanistan.
Trump steadfastly defended his sudden push for retrenchment, vowing thatthe United States would no longer be the “policeman of the Middle East” andsaying the 2,000-strong US force in Syria was no longer needed as theIslamic State group had been defeated.
Mattis, a battle-hardened retired four-star general seen as a moderatingforce on the often impulsive president, made little attempt to hide hisdisagreements with Trump.
“Because you have the right to have a secretary of defense whose views arebetter aligned with yours,” Mattis said in a letter to Trump, “I believe itis right for me to step down from my position.”
Mattis hailed the coalition to defeat Islamic State as well as NATO, thenearly 70-year-old alliance between North America and Europe whosecost-effectiveness has been questioned by the businessman turned president.
“My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed aboutboth malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informedby over four decades of immersion in these issues,” Mattis wrote.
One day after the surprise announcement on Syria, a US official told AFPthat Trump had also decided on a “significant withdrawal” in a much largerUS operation — Afghanistan.
Some 14,000 troops are fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan as part of thelongest-ever US war, launched in response to the September 11, 2001attacks. The Wall Street Journal reported that more than half would bereturning.
Trump has surrounded himself with former military men and shown anuncharacteristic public deference toward Mattis, a bookish 68-year-old whohas disagreed with the president behind the scenes on issues from Russia toIran to accepting transgender soldiers.
He hinted at Mattis’s departure as far back as October, telling CBS: “Itcould be that he is (leaving). I think he’s sort of a Democrat, if you wantto know the truth… He may leave. I mean, at some point, everybody leaves.”
On Twitter Thursday, however, Trump had only praise for his defensesecretary, who will serve until the end of February, crediting him withachieving “tremendous progress.”
– ‘National security crisis’ –
US lawmakers across the political spectrum voiced concern over a rebirth ofthe Islamic State group in Syria and sounded an alarm as Mattis unmoorsfrom the unpredictable administration.
Senator Marco Rubio, a member of Trump’s Republican Party, said Mattis inhis letter “makes it abundantly clear that we are headed towards a seriesof grave policy errors which will endanger our nation, damage our alliancesand empower our adversaries.”
Democratic Senator Mark Warner called Mattis “an island of stability amidstthe chaos of the Trump administration” and voiced fears of policy driven by“the president’s erratic whims.”
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was unusually pointed,calling for the US to “maintain a clear-eyed understanding of our friendsand foes, and recognize that nations like Russia are among the latter.”
He said he was “particularly distressed that he is resigning due to sharpdifferences with the president on these and other key aspects of America’sglobal leadership.”
Read Top Stories
Trump was quick to note that he has ramped up military spending, but he hasbeen most interested in deploying troops at home to carry out his keydomestic goal of cracking down on unauthorized immigration.
“Does the USA want to be the Policeman of the Middle East, getting NOTHINGbut spending precious lives and trillions of dollars protecting others who,in almost all cases, do not appreciate what we are doing? Do we want to bethere forever? Time for others to finally fight,” he tweeted.
– Putin praises Trump –
The US withdrawal will make Russia, which has deployed its air power insupport of President Bashar al-Assad, the pre-eminent global power in theSyrian conflict.
“The fact that the US has decided to withdraw its troops is right,”President Vladimir Putin said during an annual year-end press conference,saying that “on the whole I agree with the US president” on the level ofdamage inflicted on Islamic State.
Putin, who has described the fall of the Soviet Union as a historicgeopolitical disaster, sees Moscow’s longtime ally Syria as a key asset inpreserving influence in the Middle East.
Iran’s Shiite clerical regime has also strongly backed Assad, a secularleader from the heterodox Alawite sect.
Turkey opposes Assad and may be emboldened by Trump to attack Kurdishfighters inside Syria, who fought alongside US troops against the IslamicState group.
Turkey links Kurds who dominate the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces to adecades-old insurgency at home, but had been reluctant to strike for fearof setting off a crisis if the United States suffered casualties.
Mustefa Bali, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces, said thefighters would keep up the battle against Islamic State — but that all betswere off if Turkey attacks.
– Worries in Europe –
Bali said the Kurdish forces would keep locked up the Islamic Stateextremists in their custody — but alleged that Turkey may target prisons tosow chaos once US troops leave.
The Islamic State movement has claimed credit for a slew of attacks aroundthe world, including the 2015 coordinated assault on Paris, and expertsestimate that thousands of sympathizers remain.
Meanwhile Germany, which has taken in more than one million refugeesstemming in large part from the Syria conflict, questioned Trump’sassessment that the threat was over.
While fighting has largely subsided in Syria and the Islamic State groupholds little territory, a political solution remains elusive in ending thewar that has killed more than 360,000 and displaced millions since 2011.
