President Trump announced late Saturday that McGurk's resignation was nothing more than grandstanding given that McGurk, who'd been appointed to his post by Obama in 2015, was leaving anyhow in February. Does this mean his resignation should be moved out of the miracle category? I say it's still a miracle considering how much trouble McGurk made in Iraq, where he was throwing his weight around in Iraqi politics, and how much more trouble he could've made there before February. As to what he was supposed to be doing in his appointed role of 'ambassador' to an anti-Daesh coalition -- darned if I know.
END UPDATE
Pundita stop jumping up and down on the edge of that recliner. It's gonna tip [crashing sounds] over. All right, now just calm down. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here.
US Envoy for Anti-Daesh Coalition Resigns Over Syria Pullout
19:09 - 22.12.2018
Sputnik
Previously, the decision by US President Donald Trump allegedly made Defence Secretary James Mattis announce his resignation.
Brett McGurk, the US ambassador to the coalition fighting the Daesh terror group, has resigned in protest to US troops being withdrawn from Syria, a US State Department official said on Saturday.
Earlier this month, McGurk stated it would be "reckless" to believe that Daesh was defeated, and therefore, US forces must stay in the country in order to oppose terrorists.
"On Syria, we were originally going to be there for three months, and that was seven years ago — we never left. When I became President, ISIS [Daesh] was going wild. Now ISIS is largely defeated and other local countries, including Turkey, should be able to easily take care of whatever remains. We’re coming home!" Trump said on Twitter.
The official was appointed to the post by President Barack Obama in 2015 and later retained by Trump. According to AP, he claimed in the resignation letter that the withdrawal of US forces will create the conditions that gave rise to Daesh in the past.
Earlier this week Trump announced plans to pull 2,000 US troops out of northern Syria, where they have been backing the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The president has also reportedly ordered the withdrawal of about half of the 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan.
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