Brett McGurk: Stopping what we started in Syria in 2014 will have disastrous

Brett McGurk, the former envoy of the Global Coalition to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) has said in a panel at Brookings Institution in Washington DC: “Syria’s current policy is fraught with contradictions and includes a mismatch between promises and objectives on one hand and the resources we provide on the other hand”.

McGurk talked about difficult moments in 2014, when the Islamic State was at the forefront of its spread and power, and controlled more than 8 million people in Syria and Iraq.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad had become an operation and coordination room to try to establish the appropriate form to counter the terrorist groups.

He said that he has traveled and visited a number of countries from Australia to Europe to Jordan to gather allies around the desired goal, which has cost the United States a lot of efforts and resources that are being wasted now amid the specter of returning the threat of the new chaos created by terrorism.

Although McGurk praised Trump’s reluctance to withdraw his troops from Syria, he said, “policies have become more contradictory after the talk of the withdrawal, as President Trump has shaken the allies’ trust in the United States”.

“Then, advisor Bolton came to the administration with big dreams and expectations to expand the coalition’s goals against ISIS into new, huge and difficult realizations such as expelling Iran from Syria, and replacing the Syrian regime according to Geneva vision,” he said.

“Without the United States actually increasing its resources to achieve these new goals,” he added.

McGurk warned against giving up the coalition’s gains in 2014 and what it follows of building international consensus and willingness from a large number of countries to join hands in combating this terrorist organization. 

As he said that, the withdrawal of the United States means the withdrawal of all these countries and the end of this consensus. 

While ISIS is still undefeated completely from McGurk’s point of view, while the United States will face many future costs and suffering regarding the understatement of the continued focus on defeating the extremist group and preventing its return.