The U.S. Will Not Abandon Syria, Says Mattis, In Fact It May Get Even More Involved by David Brennan – Newsweek
Defense Secretary James Mattis told senators on Thursday that the U.S. military is not preparing to withdraw from Syria and that the presence of American troops is vital for continued anti-ISIS operations.
Speaking in front of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, Mattis seemed to contradict President Donald Trump’s suggestions that American forces would soon withdraw from Syria, warning that the U.S. would regret abandoning the country too soon, The Washington Post reported.
While hosting French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, Trump suggested U.S. troops would “be coming home relatively soon.” However, Mattis said Thursday that the U.S.-led coalition is engaged in “an ongoing fight,” and assured senators “we’re going to expand it with more regional support.”
There are currently around 2,000 American soldiers in Syria acting as advisers to local forces and conducting special operations missions. Mattis said that even after ISIS is entirely destroyed the U.S. must be careful about full withdrawal. “I’m confident that we would probably regret it,” Mattis explained, after Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina compared the current situation to the American withdrawal from Iraq in 2011—a decision that contributed to the rise of ISIS…