Sen. Bob Corker, the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said an abrupt withdrawal from Syria “boggles any sane thinking.
“I’m saddened for the broken relationships with countries that have been with us. I’m saddened for the many Kurds and others that likely will be killed and slaughtered by the Syrians or the Turks. I’m saddened for our country in being so unreliable,” the Tennessee Republican said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
President Trump announced a rapid withdrawal from Syria this week, declaring victory over the Islamic State, in a move that apparently took administration officials by surprise. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition, both resigned in protest over Trump’s foreign policy decision.
Corker said McGurk, accused by Trump in a Saturday night tweet of grandstanding, “did the right thing.”
“Some devastating decisions are being made even with people giving strong input in the opposite direction,” Corker said to CNN host Jake Tapper. The outgoing senator said he is trying to point out the problems with this kind of decision-making.
“I hope some way or another the president sees to make decisions that are not ultimately devastating to our country,” he said.
When challenged by Tapper about what to say to voters who are tired of having troops in Syria and Afghanistan, Corker said Syria was a low-cost way to both rout out the Islamic State and keep Russia and Iran in check and the engagement was two months away from being finished before Trump jerked the rug out from under the effort.
“I have no understanding of what we did, why we did what we did in Syria. It just totally boggles any sane thinking that could take place. Boggles it. I don’t understand it, ” Corker said.
Corker, who has been a critic of the president’s for the last year, had a meeting scheduled with Trump on Wednesday, the day Trump made the announcement he would rapidly withdraw all troops from Syria. Trump canceled the meeting while Corker was waiting in the White House.
“I think he knows that he has made a mistake. I do. The president’s tendencies are to dig in and double down even if you knows he did something incorrect,” said Corker, about that canceled meeting. “I don’t think he wanted to talk about Syria that day and so the meeting was called off.”
