This country’s national security decision-making process is more broken than at any time since the National Security Act became law in 1947. Nothing illustrates this dangerous dysfunction more starkly than President Trump’s reckless, unilateral decisions to announce the sudden withdrawal of all 2,000 United States troops from Syria and to remove 7,000 from Afghanistan.
These decisions went against the advice of the president’s top advisers, blindsided our allies and Congress, and delivered early Christmas presents to our adversaries from Russia and Iran to Hezbollah and the Taliban. The costs of this chaos are enormous, starting with the blunt, unnerving resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, one of the last senior administration officials committed to preserving American global leadership and alliances.
In a stunning tweet Wednesday, Mr. Trump declared the Islamic State defeated and promised the rapid return of all United States forces from Syria. In fact, the Islamic State is not defeated, though it is greatly weakened. The Pentagon estimates that 2,000 to 2,500 fighters continue to control territory in southeastern Syria, while tens of thousands more remain throughout Syria and Iraq. Although many militants have melted back into the population, they can re-emerge, as we saw after the American withdrawal from Iraq in 2011. Stabilizing the areas liberated from the Islamic State to prevent its revival remains as important as ever.
Cutting and running from Syria benefits only militants, Turkey, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Russia and Iran. We are abandoning our Kurdish partners, leaving them vulnerable to Turkey’s offensive, after they did the hard work of undermining the Islamic State.
We are walking away from our British and French allies that deployed forces on the battlefield, and from the coalition of over 70 countries we painstakingly built to counter the Islamic State — without even the courtesy of consultation. We are leaving Israel alone to confront Iran and Hezbollah’s hostility, while relinquishing our remaining influence over the future of a fractured Syria.
The near simultaneous order to withdraw half of the American troops in Afghanistan shocked our NATO allies, who have served alongside United States forces since Sept. 11, and shook the Afghan government in advance of precarious presidential elections next year. This arbitrary and precipitous withdrawal will strengthen the Taliban and undermine diplomatic efforts to jump-start reconciliation talks, while opening the field to greater Russian and Chinese influence.
If our national security decision-making process were even minimally functional, there would have been a carefully devised plan to execute moves, including wrongheaded ones. The plan would have included strategies for mitigating risks to our partners on the battlefield and to friendly governments; advance consultations with allies; briefings of Congress; and a press strategy.
Instead, two factors combined to ensure the collapse of the decision-making apparatus.
First, it appears that the national security adviser, John Bolton, rarely convenes his cabinet colleagues, known as the principals committee, to review the toughest issues. Instead, key players are cut out, as reportedly the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was from the final, fateful meeting on Syria. Mr. Bolton has not named a replacement deputy national security adviser, leaving vacant a crucial position whose holder typically coordinates the national security agencies in drafting and carrying out policy.
Mr. Bolton has also taken over direct responsibility for managing everything from cyber and terrorist attacks to hurricanes and pandemics — tasks previously assigned to another top-level White House official. Mr. Bolton is also traveling abroad more than most of his predecessors, even as he is playing multiple all-consuming roles. These ill-advised choices alone would cripple national security decision-making.
But a second factor — Mr. Trump himself — has dealt the death blow to effective policymaking. The president couldn’t care less about facts, intelligence, military analysis or the national interest. He refuses to take seriously the views of his advisers, announces decisions on impulse and disregards the consequences of his actions. In abandoning the role of a responsible commander in chief, Mr. Trump today does more to undermine American national security than any foreign adversary. Yet no Republican in Congress is willing to do more than bleat or tweet concerns.
Against this backdrop, Mr. Mattis’s resignation is even more worrisome. Even though his record was mixed, he provided desperately needed reassurance to our allies, an unabashed if private counterweight to the president’s worse instincts, and experience and stature too great for Mr. Bolton to ignore. His departure will leave the administration all but devoid of wise, principled leadership and the guts to check a president who consistently places politics and self-interest above national security.
No one relishes keeping American service members in harm’s way. American troops should not remain indefinitely in Syria or Afghanistan. Our deployment of forces, strategy and objectives should be continuously evaluated, and decisions based on conditions on the ground and our broader interests. That is what the National Security Council decision-making process is supposed to do. When it is discarded, the security of the nation and our allies is the first to suffer.
