McConnell Urges Trump to ‘Reverse Course’ on Syria Pullback

Lawmakers in both parties continue to oppose move

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) continued to rail against President Trump’s pullback from northeastern Syria, calling it a “grave strategic mistake” and calling on Trump to reverse course and go back into that part of Syria.

There are reasons to think that Trump reversing course is at least possible, not the least of which is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo explicitly saying Trump just does whatever is for the best, and if he’s convinced going back into the war is for the best, he’d do that.

Trump already did that once, announcing imminent withdrawal from Syria late last year, and scrapping that almost immediately once he realized the political opposition the move faced. Lawmakers are once again insisting uniformly that anything involving being less militarily engaged in Syria is unacceptable.

The reversal could be very difficult to even attempt at this point, with Turkey already in northern Syria. It would also be difficult to realign with the Kurds, particularly after Trump’s deeply critical comments about them.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.