Saturday, December 22, 2018

Just dandy

This:

Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the global coalition fighting the Islamic State group, has resigned in protest over President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, a U.S. official said, joining Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in an administration exodus of experienced national security figures.
Only 11 days ago, McGurk had said it would be “reckless” to consider IS defeated and therefore would be unwise to bring American forces home. McGurk decided to speed up his original plan to leave his post in mid-February.
Look, I've already seen the takes from right of center - at the moment, what any Leftist has to say about all this is of back-burner interest to me - to the effect that we have ill-defined reasons only tangentially related to national interest for remaining in Syria, but they ring hollow. Our Kurdish allies are embittered about this. Iran, Russia and Turkey are grinning slyly. Given the context - North Korea's reversion to its customary belligerence, revved-up threats to Israel on both its northern and southern borders, Russian ships and planes in Venezuela - this does not project an image of strength and readiness.

Mr. McGurk seems to agree.

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