Lindsey And Donald Make Up Over Lunch

Lindsey Graham has made it clear he’s not sold on pulling out of Syria.

I don’t know that I entirely blame him. If anything, we’ve screwed over the Kurds one too many times. I think it’s important we ensure the safety of our middle-eastern allies. Mark my words: We will require their alliance again.

After lunch with president Trump at the White House this Sunday, Sen. Graham made it clear many of his concerns have been alleviated.

I learned a lot from President @realDonaldTrump about our efforts in Syria that was reassuring. (1/3)

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 30, 2018

The President will make sure any withdrawal from Syria will be done in a fashion to ensure:

1) ISIS is permanently destroyed.

2) Iran doesn’t fill in the back end, and

3) our Kurdish allies are protected.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 30, 2018

President @realDonaldTrump is talking with our commanders and working with our allies to make sure these three objectives are met as we implement the withdrawal. (3/3)

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 30, 2018

According to Fox News:

R-S.C., told reporters Sunday that “I feel pretty good about where we’re headed” in Syria after suggesting that President Trump is “reconsidering” the planned pullout which had drawn bipartisan criticism and forced the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis.

Graham emerged from the White House after a two-hour lunch with Trump and said the president “told me some things I didn’t know that make me feel a lot better about where we’re headed in Syria.”

“He promised to destroy ISIS. He’s going to keep that promise,” Graham said of Trump. “We’re not there yet. But as I said today, we’re inside the 10-yard line and the president understands the need to finish the job.”

Graham had been very vocal about his disagreement with the decision:

Earlier Sunday, Graham called on Trump to reverse his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria in a wide-ranging interview broadcast on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“If we leave now, the Kurds are going to get slaughtered,” Graham told host Dana Bash, adding that Trump had discussed the matter with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford and was “reconsidering how we do this.”

“He’s frustrated. I get it. People should pay more. They should fight more,” Graham said. “But we’re not the policemen of the world here. We’re fighting a war against ISIS. They’re still not defeated in Syria. I’m asking the president to make sure that we have troops there to protect us. Don’t outsource our national security to some foreign power. If we leave now, the Kurds are going to get into a fight with Turkey, they could get slaughtered.”

They are important allies. We can’t turn our backs on them now.

Graham echoed that theme outside the White House, telling reporters that the Kurds “stepped up when nobody else would” to fight ISIS.

Bingo. But after lunch with the president, Graham said that he thought Trump’s post-Christmas visit to Iraq was “eye-opening.”

“The commanders there told him that ISIS was in a world of hurt,” the senator said. “Not completely destroyed but well on their way. I think operations to completely destroy and decimate ISIS are going to be ongoing and are going to be accelerated.

“So the president assured me that he’s going to make sure he gets the job done and I assured him that nobody has done more to defeat ISIS than he has,” Graham added.

Good deal. All of this is very reassuring.