BY DOMINICK DICARLO | STAFF WRITER
The resignation of Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, is a major blow to the Trump Administration and casts a large shadow of doubt and concern over what the United States’ foreign policy will look like moving forward.
The announcement earlier this week from the President, that the United States would be pulling all of our troops out from Syria shocked most foreign policy experts across the political spectrum. The decision came via Twitter, where the President said:
“Does the USA want to be the Policeman of the Middle East, getting NOTHING but spending precious lives and trillions of dollars protecting others who, in almost all cases, do not appreciate what we are doing?”
When the President announced his intentions to pull forces out of the region, he was hit with sharp criticism from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. and across the country. In Secretary Mattis’s letter of resignation he states, “Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position.” It is very clear that President Trump and Secretary Mattis have strong areas of disagreement when it comes to what United States foreign policy should look like moving forward. Those differences seemingly have finally come to a head now that Secretary Mattis intends to resign. I have made it very clear that I am not in favor of the United States pulling troops out of Syria. There is a real fear that President Trump is going to wind up making some of the same mistakes that President Obama made when he pulled troops out of Iraq in 2011. When President Obama pulled troops out of Iraq, it left a void which was eventually filled by the rise of ISIS. President Trump declared victory in the war against ISIS in his tweet which announced his intention of pulling troops out from Syria. There are still ISIS fighters in the region, with estimates placing the exact number anywhere between 5,000 and 30,000. There is also the concern over what Turkey will do if the United States leaves the region. Would Turkey continue to fight ISIS and ensure that it cannot regroup, or will it focus squarely on destroying the Kurdish fighters? There are many problems with this plan, which is why it plainly should not happen. It seems as if this is one of the things that President Trump and Secretary Mattis disagree on.
“One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies,” Secretary Mattis said in his letter of resignation.
James Mattis is a consummate professional who has always served his nation with honor and decency. We all owe him a sincere debt of gratitude for his service and love of this great nation.
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