GOP Rep. Will Hurd on pulling troops out of Syria: 'I hope this decision is reconsidered'

CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 12/20/2018, 8:37 a.m.
Republican Rep. Will Hurd said President Donald Trump's order to withdraw US troops from Syria was a "terrible" decision.
Republican lawmaker Will Hurd says it's important that President Donald Trump apologize to the United Kingdom for pushing the unsubstantiated claim that President Barack Obama asked British spies to wiretap Trump Tower.

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN

(CNN) -- Republican Rep. Will Hurd said President Donald Trump's order to withdraw US troops from Syria was a "terrible" decision.

"Our allies weren't notified. Our senior leaders in our government, in the military -- and the intelligence community wasn't notified," Hurd told Alisyn Camerota Thursday on CNN's "New Day."

"I hope this decision is reconsidered," he added later.

In his announcement Wednesday, Trump declared that "we have defeated ISIS in Syria."

Hurd, a former CIA operative, disagreed with the President's assessment, telling CNN that while "ISIS fighters are on the run," they still "have the ability to regroup."

"We cannot allow (ISIS) to have the ability to regroup and train, equipped and run operations unencumbered," he said Thursday.

Hurd added that if the terrorist group is given a chance to grow, their first target would be the United States.

The Texas Republican argued that the roughly 2,000 US troops in Syria play "an important role in keeping our homeland and Americans safe."

"We should be making sure that...the American people don't have to deal with ISIS in the future and that's why we should stay," Hurd said.

Hurd also said Trump's decision was equivalent to President Barack Obama's decision to withdraw troops from Iraq, which he said led to the rise of ISIS in that region.

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