Associated Press/Susan Walsh
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters following his teleconference with troops from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018.
- The president says ISIS is defeated, but the Pentagon, Department of State, and the US-led coalition in Iraq and Syria have said otherwise in recent days.
- The US, reportedly at the president's decision, has started withdrawing troops from Syria as "we transition to the next phase of this campaign."
- Critics suggest that a pre-emptive withdrawal could impair the ongoing fight against ISIS, as well as advance Russian, Iranian, and Syrian regime interests in the region.
President Donald Trump declared victory over ISIS Wednesday, contradicting recent guidance from the Pentagon, the State Department, and the US-led coalition in Iraq and Syria.
"We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency," the president tweeted.
The White House followed with a more detailed statement revealing that the US has started pulling troops out of Syria, confirming earlier reports that the Trump administration has ordered the rapid withdrawal of the roughly 2,000 US military personnel serving in Syria.
"Five years ago, ISIS was a powerful and dangerous force in the Middle East," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders explained Wednesday. "And, now the United States has defeated the territorial caliphate ... We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of the campaign."
Members of Trump's own party immediately blasted the decision to pull out.
"Withdrawal of this small American force in Syria would be a huge Obama-like mistake," South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham argued, while Florida Sen. Marco Rubio called the president's decision a "grave error."
"With all due respect, ISIS is not defeated," Graham added.
The decision, which reflects the president's long-standing desire to pull troops out of Syria, runs contrary to statements made by individuals executing the administration's Syria policy.
"ISIS must be defeated and we must fight them here, because it means our loved ones across the globe will be safer if we do, and this is where the greatest concentration of evil is located," Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Col. Sean Ryan told reporters at the Pentagon late last month.
"To accomplish this," he further explained, "we cannot walk away, we must stay and work with our partners to develop their capabilities and capacity and ensure they can prevent this enemy from ever threatening Iraq, Syria and any other country around the world."
The coalition said just last Friday that the mission in Syria remains unchanged.
On Tuesday, just one day before Trump declared victory over ISIS in Syria, State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino said of the ISIS fight in Syria, "We've made significant progress recently in the campaign, ... but the job is not yet done."
The Pentagon has repeatedly insisted on maintaining the US military presence in Syria to prevent the resurgence of ISIS, as well as derail troubling initiatives detrimental to US interests by other malign actors, such as Russia, Iran, and the Syrian regime.
"Getting rid of the caliphate doesn't mean you then blindly say okay, we got rid of it, march out, and then wonder why the caliphate comes back," Secretary of
Recent reports indicate that there could still be tens of thousands of ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria.
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White said in an email statement Wednesday that "the Coalition has liberated the ISIS-held territory, but the campaign against ISIS is not over. We will continue working with our partners and allies to defeat ISIS wherever it operates."
She said that troops are starting to return home, but refused to provide additional details for operational security reasons.