Lindsey Graham, arguably Donald Trump’s staunchest ally on Capitol Hill, is furious.
It comes as no surprise that Graham isn’t enamored with news that the White House sold out America’s Kurdish allies in Syria during a Sunday phone call with Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Graham has never seen eye-to-eye with Trump on foreign policy.
What is surprising, though, is how forcefully Graham came out in opposition on Monday at a time when Republicans are circling the wagons amid the spiraling impeachment probe.
Read more on the Syria decision
“I don’t know all the details regarding President Trump’s decision in northern Syria”, Lindsey began, first thing Monday morning in a series of tweets.
“[I’m] in the process of setting up phone call with Secretary Pompeo [but] if press reports are accurate this is a disaster in the making”, he said, adding that Trump folding to Erdogan will lead to the following four outcomes:
- Ensures ISIS comeback.
- Forces Kurds to align with Assad and Iran.
- Destroys Turkey’s relationship with US Congress.
- Will be a stain on America’s honor for abandoning the Kurds.
And he wasn’t done.
“If this plan goes forward [I] will introduce [a] Senate resolution opposing [it] and asking for [a] reversal”, Graham said, warning that Trump can “expect it [to] receive strong bipartisan support”.
Trump, meanwhile, tweeted what he imagines is a compelling justification for the move. The following is verbatim, and while the broad contours are true, it contains omissions and the usual handful of mini-lies:
The United States was supposed to be in Syria for 30 days, that was many years ago. We stayed and got deeper and deeper into battle with no aim in sight. When I arrived in Washington, ISIS was running rampant in the area. We quickly defeated 100% of the ISIS Caliphate,………including capturing thousands of ISIS fighters, mostly from Europe. But Europe did not want them back, they said you keep them USA! I said “NO, we did you a great favor and now you want us to hold them in U.S. prisons at tremendous cost. They are yours for trials.” They……….again said “NO,” thinking, as usual, that the U.S. is always the “sucker,” on NATO, on Trade, on everything. The Kurds fought with us, but were paid massive amounts of money and equipment to do so. They have been fighting Turkey for decades. I held off this fight for……..almost 3 years, but it is time for us to get out of these ridiculous Endless Wars, many of them tribal, and bring our soldiers home. WE WILL FIGHT WHERE IT IS TO OUR BENEFIT, AND ONLY FIGHT TO WIN. Turkey, Europe, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Russia and the Kurds will now have to……..figure the situation out, and what they want to do with the captured ISIS fighters in their “neighborhood.” They all hate ISIS, have been enemies for years. We are 7000 miles away and will crush ISIS again if they come anywhere near us!
Lindsey wasn’t listening. Instead, he hopped on the phone and called up Fox & Friends, just to make sure Trump got the message.
“I hope I’m making myself clear how shortsighted and irresponsible this decision is in my view”, he reiterated.
“This to me is just unnerving to its core”, he seethed, incredulous.
Suffice to say this is a bad time for Trump to be making enemies of his best friends in the Senate.
What would anyone expect? – “Everything Trump Touches Dies” ……
I have several American-Kurdish friends, so I’m glad LG found religion on this.
BUT, this is where he criticizes Trump? He can sell out his own country but not a region in the mideast. At least he has one principle left.
@PJSPHD That is also my opinion of LG.
There was always that point where Trump could become the Deep States worst nightmare… It is exemplified in this issue and this post..The ideology and role of the US going forward is what is at stake here and that is a polarizing issue to be sure… A lot of Trumps base is divided on this so his support could well be in jeopardy… WOW this should get a lot of attention as it is crucial…
This is Trump’s mindless support of a dictator at the expense of America’s allies, who he’s betraying on a whim. He’s not only betrayed the Kurds but also the Saudi’s, among others. This won’t help Ithe Israili’s either.
Trump is losing against North Korea where Mr. Kim fired off a submarine-launched missile (now he could do that off L.A.), without a ‘peep’ from Trump
The Chinese are pulling back trade offers, sensing Trump’s weakness.
I could go on…
so much winning.
The majority of Americans should be rejoicing that at least, in this one instance, Trump is doing the right thing.
The U.S. Middle East wars have been a futile, costly, and human tragedy for more than a generation now. The casualties have been estimated in the high hundreds of thousands in Iraq, alone. How many Syrians, Yemenis, Libyans, Afghans have been killed and injured, and for what? The human tragedy in that part of the world will continue, with our without the U.S. involvement. So, let’s just not be such a large part of it.
I recently saw the movie classic “Lawrence of Arabia”. It was a clear reminder that it is a great conceit of the western world that we can just go in like the good sheriff in a western movie, clean out the bad guys, and bring peace and stability to a troubled land.
You are lumping conflicts together with no regard for nuance whatsoever. There is a reason why everyone, almost unequivocally, is condemning this decision. It cost the US almost nothing to keep those handful of troops embedded with the YPG, thereby shielding them from Erdogan. The fact is, Trump has green-lighted a massacre. period.
Or is this the point where LG has an excuse to release himself from Trump’s coattails. Maybe he wants to remain a Senator?? No hope for Mitch. That asshole can rot in hell.
McConnell lambasted the move too. As did Pelosi. As did Klobuchar. As did Rubio. As did literally everyone (almost). My point here today is that if Trump were trying to end an actual war, or bring home thousands of “regular” soldiers, etc., then that would be great. But this is not that, so to speak. This is a literal handful (and I do mean handful) of personnel. yes, they were in danger as anyone is in Syria, but this isn’t some heroic effort to save American lives. this has nothing to do with saving American lives. this was a blatant concession to Erdogan who obviously bullied Trump over the phone or else engaged in some kind of quid pro quo with him. as Iran’s Zarif put it today, the US presence in Syria is “irrelevant”. And he wasn’t necessarily trying to be derisive. He was just stating a fact. This move has nothing to do with anything other than letting Erdogan kill Kurds without having to worry about accidentally killing a SEAL or something.
I am not sure what the correct policy here is, nor what you are advocating for. The United States either has to overthrow the Assad regime or fight for some kind of partition. No bordering country, each with significant Kurdish minorities, would ever countenance a Syrian Kurdish statelet, and as Assad consolidates control over the rest of the country, his eye will turn north. How big of an American presence, whether of “advisors”, special forces, or C.I.A. personnel, would have to be there to effectively deter him? And for how long? There may be a broad-based bipartisan support for perpetual presence there, but please forgive us for thinking this is in service of the Complex instead of humanitarian concern for Syrian Kurds. The support for intervention is just not there among the demos; not among M.A.G.A.s and not among Progressives. The Kurds will either lose to Turkey this week or Damascus in the coming decades because they are there forever and the United States is not.
Spare me. Seriously, spare me. This is a wholly disingenuous comment and I’m not going to entertain it other than to say that if you don’t understand why a panicky Donald Trump who is rumored to abuse Adderall and who had spent 72 straight hours tweeting the most unhinged balderdash imaginable, shouldn’t be making monumental decisions about the fate of America’s alliance with the Kurds in a Sunday night phone call with one of the most notoriously manipulative, conniving political operators on planet Earth, then I don’t know what to tell you.