Trump defends decision to withdraw troops from Syria...and Resignations continue..

Iran: Trump administration to review the Nuclear Deal terms

Donald Trump has been defending his decision to withdraw all US troops from Syria, and end an air campaign against ISIS.

After historic victories against ISIS, it’s time to bring our great young people home! pic.twitter.com/xoNjFzQFTp

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2018

US Department of Defense resignations continue..

US envoy for anti-ISIS coalition McGurk resigns: reports

Brett McGurk, the top US envoy in ISIL fight, quits over Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria, US media report

Brett McGurk, the US envoy to the global coalition fighting ISIL, resigned this week over his disagreement with President Donald Trump’s surprise decision to pull US troops out of Syria, US media reported on Saturday, citing unnamed sources.

Both the Associated Press and CBS news reported the departure, saying McGurk submitted his resignation letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday, a day after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he was leaving his post.

In the letter, which was described to the Associated Press by an official familiar with its contents, McGurk said fighters with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) were on the run, but not yet defeated as Trump had said.

He added that the premature pull-out of American forces from Syria would create the conditions that gave rise to ISIL.

McGurk, whose resignation is effective on December 31, was planning to leave the job in mid-February after a US-hosted meeting of foreign ministers from the coalition countries, but he felt he could continue no longer after Trump’s decision to withdraw from Syria and Mattis’s resignation, according to the official speaking to the Associated Press.

One day before, Jim Mattis, Defense Secretary, Resigns in Rebuke of Trump’s Worldview

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, whose experience and stability were widely seen as a balance to an unpredictable president, resigned Thursday in protest of President Trump’s decision to withdraw American forces from Syria and his rejection of international alliances.

Mattis had repeatedly told friends and aides over recent months that he viewed his responsibility to protect the United States’ 1.3 million active-duty troops as worth the concessions necessary as defense secretary to a mercurial president. But on Thursday, in an extraordinary rebuke of the president, he decided that Trump’s decision to withdraw roughly 2,000 American troops from Syria was a step too far.