Editorial | Donald Trump must rethink his strategy on Syria
- Withdrawing US troops and abandoning Kurdish allies will only embolden Islamic State militant group
The consequences of US President Donald Trump’s decision last Wednesday to pull his country’s troops out of northeast Syria are chillingly apparent.
Kurdish fighters who helped defeat Islamic State militant group (Isis) are under attack from invading Turkish forces, risking a resurgence of Muslim extremism. They accuse the US of abandoning them in spite of previous promises of protection and want the region’s airspace closed to Turkey’s warplanes.
Allies are understandably alarmed, knowing that the stability fought so hard for is in jeopardy.
Trump’s decision, in a short White House statement followed by several messages on Twitter, came days after the release of a report by a bipartisan committee of American lawmakers calling for US troops to remain in the region. It determined that Isis remained a threat. Tellingly, it concluded that sudden shifts and reversals of policy had undermined American credibility and effectiveness.
Ignoring the analysis, the president claimed that Isis had been “100 per cent” defeated.