{"id":45162,"date":"2019-10-09T16:37:41","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T16:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/10\/09\/withdrawing-troops-from-northern-syria-could-not-come-at-a-worse-time-votel-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T08:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T08:38:12","slug":"withdrawing-troops-from-northern-syria-could-not-come-at-a-worse-time-votel-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/flashpoints\/2019\/10\/09\/withdrawing-troops-from-northern-syria-could-not-come-at-a-worse-time-votel-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Withdrawing troops from northern Syria could \u2018not come at a worse time,\u2019 Votel says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Withdrawing U.S. troops from northern Syria jeopardizes American credibility among allies and could unravel progress already made to quash the Islamic State, according to retired Gen. Joseph Votel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe abrupt policy decision to seemingly abandon our Kurdish partners could not come at a worse time,\u201d Votel and Elizabeth Dent, a non-resident scholar with the Middle East Institute\u2019s Countering Terrorism and Extremism program and former State Department official, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2019\/10\/danger-abandoning-our-partners\/599632\/\" target=\"_blank\">wrote in an op-ed for The Atlantic Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis policy abandonment threatens to undo five years\u2019 worth of fighting against ISIS and will severely damage American credibility and reliability in any future fights where we need strong allies,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Sunday, the White House <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2019\/10\/08\/a-look-at-whos-who-in-northeast-syria-as-war-fears-rise\/\" target=_blank>decided to withdraw U.S. troops<\/a> from the Syrian-Turkish border amid an impending attack from Turkey against Syrian Kurds. Although Kurdish allies have fought alongside U.S. forces to combat ISIS, Turkey considers Kurds with the Syrian Democratic Forces a branch of a designated terrorist organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The move has ignited outrage from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, but President Donald Trump has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2019\/10\/08\/trump-on-pulling-us-troops-out-of-syria-were-not-a-police-force\/\" target=\"_blank\">defended the policy shift<\/a>. A senior administration official also told reporters Monday that the move was not a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops in Syria. Rather, the decision <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2019\/10\/07\/how-the-us-troop-withdrawal-from-northern-syria-could-create-an-isis-resurgence\/\" target=\"_blank\">would move<\/a> between 50 to 100 U.S. special operations forces to other locations in Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Votel and Dent argued that one of the most \u201csuccessful partnerships\u201d was born in northeastern Syria between the U.S. and the Syrian Democratic Forces, which evolved from the Kurdish People\u2019s Protection Units into a force of 60,000 soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEventually, the YPG became the backbone of the fighting force against ISIS in Syria,\u201d Votel and Dent wrote. \u201cWithout it, President Donald Trump could not have declared the complete defeat of ISIS.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Votel and Dent cited multiple contributions from the Syrian Democratic Forces, including liberating the Syrian town of Manbij that ISIS fighters used to enter Turkey and liberating the Syrian town of Raqqa that ISIS claimed was the caliphate\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In order for the partnership to thrive, Votel and Dent said \u201cmutual trust, constant communication, and clear expectations\u201d were necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe sudden policy change this week breaks that trust at the most crucial juncture and leaves our partners with very limited options,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Votel and Dent also noted the Syrian Democratic Forces sustained nearly 11,000 casualties over the past four years combating ISIS. So far, the U.S. has suffered casualties of six service members and two civilians in the fight against ISIS in Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. efforts to \u201cplacate our Turkish allies\u201d proved unsuccessful, according to Votel and Dent. They claimed Turkey \u201crepeatedly reneged on agreements with the U.S.\u201d following multiple rounds of negotiations regarding a security mechanism at the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An invasion from Turkey against Kurds with the Syrian Democratic Forces, \u201ccoupled with a hasty U.S. departure, now threaten to rapidly destabilize and already fragile security situation in Syria\u2019s northeast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although Votel and Dent claimed U.S. allies and senior U.S. military leadership were not consulted, the Pentagon has pushed back on \u201cmisreporting\u201d and said that Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley were consulted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Pentagon and White House later clarified that the U.S. was not abandoning the Kurds and did not support a Turkish incursion into Syria,\u201d Votel and Dent wrote. \u201cBut the damage may already be done, because it appears the Turks have taken the shift to signal a green light for an attack in the northeast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Turkey announced early Wednesday that Turkish Armed Forces and the Syrian National Army was launching its operation in northeastern Syria. Later Wednesday, Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman Mustafa Bali tweeted \u201cTurkish warplanes have started to carry out airstrikes on civilian areas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Trump administration first announced in December 2018 that ISIS had been \u201cdefeated\u201d and that U.S. troops stationed in Syria would return home. The announcement played a role in the resignation of former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Votel served as the commander of U.S. Central Command from March 2016 to March 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Withdrawing U.S. troops from northern Syria jeopardizes American credibility among allies and could unravel progress already made to quash the Islamic State, according to retired Gen. Joseph Votel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":89910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,8,23,12,25,67],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3303],"class_list":["post-45162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-home","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"D2OCPXDWEFDCXPNQ6VLTFRWTWM","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/2019\/10\/09\/withdrawing-troops-from-northern-syria-could-not-come-at-a-worse-time-votel-says\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Withdrawing troops from northern Syria could \u2018not come at a worse time,\u2019 Votel says - Marine Corps Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Withdrawing U.S. troops from northern Syria jeopardizes American credibility among allies and could unravel progress already made to quash the Islamic State, according to retired Gen. 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