How not to lead as commander in chief
It’s certainly possible to make a case against U.S. involvement in Syria’s catastrophic civil war, which has never been authorized by Congress. The trouble is that President Trump didn’t bother.
Presented in a single tweet containing 16 words and zero facts, the commander in chief ’s withdrawal announcement ambushed allies, aid groups and even some of his own advisers. Probably not coincidentally, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ resignation became official the next day. Trump’s rationale for the reversal, that “We have defeated ISIS in Syria,” contradicted every reliable account and his own subsequent claim that a U.S. exit would force “Russia, Iran, Syria & many others ... to fight ISIS.”
About 2,000 strong, the American presence in Syria is less than half the size of Trump’s dubious deployment to the Mexican border, but it’s far more significant. The U.S. forces lead a coalition that includes 78 other nations as well as the stateless Kurdish forces that Turkey’s authoritarian president recently promised to “bury.” The coalition controls close to a third of Syria’s territory in an area that has become home to tens of thousands of refugees. And though the alliance has not eradicated Islamic State extremists from the country, with at least 2,000 thought to remain, it has dislodged the group from its former capital, Raqqa, and most of its territory.
Besides Islamic State, the clearest beneficiaries of a U.S. retreat would be the mass-murdering Syrian strongman Bashar Assad and his patrons, Russia and Iran. Russian leader Vladimir Putin was among the few offering unqualified support for the decision, saying, “Donald is right.”
Trump argued Thursday that his surprise announcement should be “no surprise” given his “campaigning on it for years” and stating his desire this year to “get out.” But he also launched missile strikes on Syria weeks after that and, as recently as September, allowed senior officials to indicate an indefinite commitment to the war.
Whether the president chooses to wage war in Syria or not, he owes an explanation equal to the gravity of the decision to America’s allies, its people and its armed forces.