Pompeo rebukes Obama in Egypt: ‘The age of self-inflicted American shame is over’

Pompeo cited Obama’s Cairo address, in which he said the September 11 terrorist attacks “led us to act contrary to our traditions and our ideals” through the use of torture in counterterrorism, as an example of U.S. self-doubt that caused American power to acquiesce to the Islamic State and other horrors in the region. He repudiated those misgivings to defend the U.S. role in the region, even as allies worry about an American withdrawal under President Trump.

“When America retreats, chaos follows,” Pompeo said. “The age of self-inflicted American shame is over, and so are the policies that produced so much needless suffering.”

Pompeo delivered that message on a trip shadowed by questions about Trump’s unexpected decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. Those special operators have worked with local partners to dismantle the Islamic State’s physical caliphate and prevent Syrian dictator Bashar Assad from reclaiming strategically-significant territory with the help of Iranian ground forces.

“President Trump has made the decision to bring our troops home from Syria,” he said. “We always do and now is the time. But this isn’t a change of mission. We remain committed to the complete dismantling of the ISIS threat and the ongoing fight against radical Islamism in all its forms.”

With that, Pompeo recast the withdrawal from Syria as evidence that the United States doesn’t seek to dominate the Middle East, and sought to discourage regional powers from looking to American rivals for support.

“Would the Russians or the Chinese come to your rescue in the same way, the way that we have?” he asked.

Pompeo’s remarks downplayed a flurry of diplomatic controversy around the withdrawal from Syria. John Bolton, the White House national security adviser, appeared to set new conditions on the U.S. exit by stipulating that American partners on the ground must remain safe. That angered Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who regards the Syrian Kurdish fighters as terrorists despite their key role in helping the U.S.-led coalition upend ISIS.

“Erdogan has made commitments … he talks about he has no beef with the Kurds,” Pompeo told reporters Wednesday. “We want to make sure that that’s the case, and I’m confident that as Ambassador [James] Jeffrey and others travel through the region in the days ahead, we’ll make real progress on that.”

The Syria conflict has been a theater for much broader regional and strategic rivalries, especially due to Russian and Iranian military support for the Assad regime. Pompeo maintained that the Trump administration could achieve key goals in those competitions, even without a U.S. military presence.

“In Syria, the United States will use diplomacy and work with our partners to expel every last Iranian boot, and work through the U.N.-led process to bring peace and stability to the long-suffering Syrian people,” he said. “There will be no U.S. reconstruction assistance for areas of Syria held by Assad until Iran and its proxy forces withdraw, and until we see irreversible progress toward a political solution.”

State Department officials have touted those plans, including the refusal to pay for the rebuilding of Syria under Assad, since 2017, though now it won’t be supported by U.S. special forces on the ground.

“America has been criticized for doing too much in the Middle East and we’ve been criticized for doing too little. But one thing we’ve never been is an empire-builder or oppressor,” Pompeo said. “It’s not a coincidence that many other American universities like this one thrive across the Middle East, from Beirut to Sulaymaniyah. They are symbols of America’s innate goodness, of our hopes for you, and of the better future we desire for all the nations of the Middle East.”