A former top CIA official described the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria, leaving behind the U.S.-allied Kurds, as a “dagger to the heart.”
Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced their intention to withdraw American troops from the area. The decision was met with strong opposition from both political parties as many viewed it as an abandonment of the Kurds in the region. Turkey, which considers the Kurds to be terrorists, has already begun an incursion into northern Syria.
David Ignatius, a columnist for the Washington Post, discussed the reaction from military and intelligence officers in his Monday column. He spoke to many of them during a black-tie event last week.
“It’s a dagger to the heart to walk away from people who shed blood for us,” one former top CIA employee told him, while a retired four-star general called it an “unsound, morally indefensible act” to the people who serve in the U.S. military.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed on Monday that the House and Senate plan on crafting a resolution to “overturn” Trump’s decision to pull the troops. She and Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is frequently an ardent supporter of the president, discussed the plan but added that sanctions are a possibility.
Another solider, an Army officer who served in Syria, said the president’s decision “will go down in infamy” as “a stain on the American reputation for decades.”
