Graham attacks US betrayal of Kurds as ‘worse than Vietnam’
REPUBLICAN Senator Lindsey Graham has called President Donald Trump’s decision to pull US troops out of northern Syria “the biggest blunder of his presidency” after Turkey launched its military offensive against US-allied Kurd ish forces.
Mr Graham has broken with the president over his sudden decision to withdraw US military, a move that triggered widespread condemnation from Republicans and Democrats.
Mr Graham ratcheted up the criticism of Mr Trump for his decision and lashed out at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a news conference at The Citadel military college in Charleston.
“The president has abandoned the people who helped us destroy [Isil], chaos is unfolding and when I hear the president: ‘We’re getting out of Syria,’ my statement to you is this is worse than what Obama did,” Mr Graham said, comparing Mr Trump to former president Barack Obama.
“When Obama left Iraq, all hell broke loose, and if you think, Mr president, [Isil] is only a threat to Europe, you really don’t understand [Isil]. [Isil] is wanting to come after all of us. Not just Europeans.”
When a reporter asked if this could become Mr Trump’s Vietnam, Mr Graham replied: “No, this is worse.”
Mr Graham recounted a meeting two weeks ago with Mr Erdogan in which he told the Turkish leader a “win-win” would be a situation in which an American-led international force would create a safe zone that would protect Turkey from the Kurds and vice versa.
He also told Mr Erdogan “if you go into Syria and try to deal with this through a military operation, I will crush your economy, you will be putting the American people in a bad spot, you will make us abandon somebody who helped us destroy [Isil] – and you really did a lot to create [Isil] by creating open flows of foreign fighters into Syria.”
Meanwhile, top House Republicans Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Whip Steve Scalise, and Conference Chair Liz Cheney said they and dozens of GOP colleagues would be introducing legislation to impose sanctions against Turkey. (© Washington Post)