Contrary to what President Trump has said, experts would not conclude that the Islamic State has been defeated, according to Brett McGurk, the former special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIS.
McGurk, who resigned from his post last month, said on Monday that none of the military contributors to the global coalition that he and former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis met with believe ISIS has met its demise.
“In early December, Secretary Mattis and I met with all the military contributors of our coalition, including many countries that had been attacked from ISIS out of Syria and the unanimous view is that ISIS is not defeated, this mission is not over,” McGurk said in an interview with CNN on Monday. “I do not think there would be a single expert that would walk in the Oval Office and tell the president that this is over.”
Just last week, four Americans were killed in a suicide bombing in Syria. ISIS subsequently took responsibility for the attack.
ISIS also claimed responsibility for a suicide car-bombing in Syria Monday and said that 13 people — including Americans — were killed as a result. However, Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S-led coalition against ISIS, said that the attack did not result in any U.S. casualties.
“We can confirm a combined U.S. and Syrian partner force convoy was involved in an apparent VBIED attack today in Syria,” an Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman said. “There were no U.S. casualties. We will continue to review the situation and provide updates as appropriate.”
Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria prompted Mattis to resign on principle, and McGurk told CNN that he also stepped down because he believed his job was rendered useless.
“I basically concluded my effectiveness, my credibility to carry out those new instructions, it would really — I was unable to do it,” he said.
Last week, McGurk expressed similar sentiments and accused Trump of giving ISIS “new life” as he slammed Trump’s decision-making process.
“The president’s decision to leave Syria was made without deliberation, consultation with allies or Congress, assessment of risk, or appreciation of facts,” McGurk wrote in an op-ed published Friday in the Washington Post. “Two days after Pompeo’s call, Trump tweeted, ‘We have defeated ISIS in Syria.’ But that was not true, and we have continued to conduct airstrikes against the Islamic State.”
“The irony is that defeating the Islamic State is what the president said from the beginning was his goal. In 2016, he vowed to ‘knock the hell out of ISIS.’ His recent choices, unfortunately, are already giving the Islamic State — and other American adversaries — new life,” McGurk wrote.
Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said after last week’s attack that he was worried Trump’s rhetoric about withdrawing troops from Syria has inspired ISIS and he urged Trump “look long and hard at what we’re doing in Syria.”
