Democrats Khanna and Lieu Support Syria Withdrawal—With Caveats

Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., voiced his support Saturday for President Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria. While hawkish lawmakers criticized the announced withdrawal, Rep. Ro Khanna, another progressive California Democrat, has also voiced support.

“We should applaud the president’s desire to put an end to these interventions, but should challenge him to assemble a team that does so with better planning and diplomacy,” Khanna wrote in The Washington Post. Khanna said that although Trump’s policy is not perfect, he is right to withdraw troops, and should provide assistance to refugees.

He wrote:

There is no doubt Trump should have articulated a more prudent withdrawal strategy. He could have consulted beforehand with our allies and regional partners. One alternative to an immediate withdrawal in Syria is announcing a full withdrawal over the next few months. That would give us time to prepare local forces and to deploy intelligence platforms and networks that address potential terrorist threats.

We also cannot just leave without some consideration of our moral obligations to the Syrians that come from having engaged in war. We need to provide humanitarian assistance to civilians and accept our fair share of refugees. Trump should have used his leverage with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to ensure a cease-fire and guarantee protection for the Kurds. We should not sell Turkey Patriot missiles until we get that commitment.

Lieu told NPR’s Michel Martin on Saturday that Trump is fulfilling a campaign promise by withdrawing troops from Syria. “I do believe that withdrawing troops from Syria is the right thing to do,” he said. “There was never congressional authorization for much of the troop deployment. There was no strategy.”

Lieu also pointed out that the war did not begin with Trump. “While going after terrorists is authorized, both the Obama and Trump administrations went far beyond the congressionally authorized use of force against terrorists,” Lieu said in a statement. “Neither administration could articulate why American troops were fighting in Syria, what the desired end state should be, nor how we would achieve it.”

The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill stressed that Trump’s foreign policy as a whole should not be applauded.

1. I support withdrawing US troops from all these wars, overt and covert.
2. Trump is an unstable authoritarian who cannot be trusted.
3. “Mattis was an adult” is bullshit. He’s a hawkish war criminal.
4. It’s very telling that the war party in DC is furious.

— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) December 21, 2018

10. For those who somehow think this is Trump opposing the war machine, I point you to his massive escalation of drone strikes, his easing of rules for killing civilians, his use of ground troops in Yemen and Somalia and his use of criminal weaponry like the MOAB in Afghanistan.

— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) December 21, 2018

The crisis in Syria—and the Middle East—is far from over. Popular Resistance’s Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers stressed the need for people to continue protesting U.S. wars. “The people were right, and the military was wrong. The war on Syria never should have happened and now must end,” they wrote.