Senior Republicans to probe resignation of James Mattis, troop pullout
Senior members of the US Republican Party have expressed concern about President Donald Trump's troop withdrawal announcement, vowing to investigate the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis.
Mattis announced he would quit the Trump administration on Thursday reportedly out of frustration at the president’s decision to withdraw US troops from Syria.
In his resignation letter to Trump, Mattis, 68, a former Marine Corps’ general wrote that the president of the United States deserved a defense secretary whose views were “better aligned” with the views of the Commander in Chief of the armed forces.
South Carolina’s Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who said the resignation had saddened him, vowed to hold a hearing with Mattis in attendance to investigate the troop withdrawal .
“I’m going to ask for hearings like right now about Syria,” he said, before heading into a meeting with Republicans.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James M. Inhofe, who is a Republican from Oklahoma, noted that it was “inappropriate” for the president to have ignored his national security advisers.
Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) told media that he was “gravely concerned” about Trump's announcement to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan.
He said he was “urging the president to revisit the decision.”
Some lawmakers even suggested given the fact that Trump had never set foot in a conflict zone, he lacked the experience and credibility to make the decision to pull US troops out of Syria.
On Friday, CNN cited two unnamed defense officials as saying that Mattis was upset and “livid” after reading reports about US Kurdish allies in Syria being targeted by Turkey following a withdrawal of US troops from Syria.
The officials said what set him off was a report that the Turkish minister of defense threatened to kill the US-backed Kurdish allies and put them “in ditches” once the US troops withdrew.
The CNN broadcaster claimed the notion that Washington was betraying its Kurdish allies to appease NATO partner Turkey was what had prompted Mattis to resign.
Other sources reported that Mattis was at odds with Trump over a number of topics including the Iran nuclear deal, US withdrawal from the Paris Climate accord, as well as other issues.
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