Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria a “grave mistake.”
McConnell, 77, explained why he thinks the United States should keep its troops in the region in an op-ed that was published Friday in the Washington Post. He argued that the decision “will leave the American people and homeland less safe, embolden our enemies, and weaken important alliances.”
McConnell went on to list three principle lessons he’s learned in the fight against “radical Islamist terrorism”: “the threat is real and cannot be wished away,” “there is no substitute for American leadership,” and “we are not in this fight alone.”
Following the president’s announcement that troops would be withdrawn from the area earlier this month, the Turkish government began an incursion into Kurdish territory. The two sides reached a short-term ceasefire agreement on Thursday.
Even if the ceasefire holds long-term, “events of the past week have set back the United States’ campaign against the Islamic State and other terrorists,” McConnell added.
“As neo-isolationism rears its head on both the Left and the Right, we can expect to hear more talk of ‘endless wars.’ But rhetoric cannot change the fact that wars do not just end; wars are won or lost,” he concluded.
