MAJOR DECISION, COMPLETE WITH BACKLASH – AT 11:51 A.M. ET:  President Trump has apparently decided that U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Syria.  Details are vague.  From Fox: 

The Trump administration is considering pulling all U.S. forces out of Syria, U.S. officials confirmed to Fox News.

There are roughly 2,000 American troops on the ground in Syria currently, concentrated in northern Syria.

Pentagon officials have been caught off guard by the White House proposal, multiple officials told Fox News.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report the administration’s Syria plans. President Trump appeared to allude to the decision to pull troops out in a Wednesday morning tweet.

"We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency," Trump wrote.

The news comes less than a week after President Trump spoke to Turkey’s president last week.

Turkey has long considered the U.S.-backed ground force fighting ISIS in Syria to be a terrorist group due to their links to a separatist group in Turkey which have killed thousands in the past decades.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders underscored Trump's comments in a statement later Wednesday morning.

“Five years ago, ISIS was a very powerful and dangerous force in the Middle East, and now the United States has defeated the territorial caliphate," Sanders said. "These victories over ISIS in Syria do not signal the end of the Global Coalition or its campaign. We have started returning United States troops home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign. The United States and our allies stand ready to re-engage at all levels to defend American interests whenever necessary, and we will continue to work together to deny radical Islamist terrorists' territory, funding, support, and any means of infiltrating our borders.”

The Pentagon issued a vague statement in response to the news reports, not committing to any path ahead.

COMMENT:  Not necessarily wise.  Like the Obama administration, Trump is telegraphing his moves.  We criticized that tactice then, we criticize it now. 

The news caught many by surprise, but some in his own party are already criticizing the decision.  From the Washington Examiner: 

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., warned President Trump on Wednesday that a U.S. withdrawal from the war in Syria would be an “Obama-like mistake.”

The president claimed that the Islamic State had been defeated in Syria amid reports that the administration is planning a rapid withdrawal from the country after four years of war with the terrorist group.

But Graham said pulling out the 2,000 troops in Syria would still be a win for the group and alluded to former President Barack Obama’s decision to withdraw all forces from Iraq in 2011, a move that allowed ISIS to sweep into the region and drew widespread Republican criticism.

Graham has the better argument.  Sometimes leaving a stabilization force is wise, even if expensive.  We have a force in South Korea some 65 years after the end of the Korean War, but it has been a successful investment.  I hope the president considers this move more carefully than did his predecessor.

December 19,  2018