Defense Secretary James Mattis Resigns After Trump Announces Syria Pullout
WASHINGTON (JTA) — In a letter calling for a policy of treating allies with respect and enemies and rivals with caution, Defense Secretary James Mattis said he would quit his post, days after President Donald Trump launched the withdrawal from Syria of U.S. troops.
Mattis in his resignation letter leaked Thursday to media did not mention the Syria pullout, but he did suggest that his differences with Trump had to do with Trump’s alienating allies and his conciliatory attitude to U.S. rivals.
“My views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues,” Mattis said. “Because you have the right to 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.”
A number of Democrats and Republicans and foreign policy conservatives have taken to social media to express concerns that Trump’s abrupt pullout leaves Syria vulnerable to expanding Iranian influence in the country. Iran and its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, have helped prop up the Assad regime in Syria’s seven-year civil war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that in any final status outcome in Syria, the Iranians must leave.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO