Turkey-Syria cease-fire is 'not a success,' Republican lawmaker says
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}House Foreign Affairs Committee member Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said the Turkey-Syria cease-fire amid a U.S. troop pullout in Syria is not a success.
Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran of the Iraq War, told Neil Cavuto Friday on "Your World" that the cease-fire's terms essentially allow Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to reach his goal in the region.
"First off, time will tell on the cease-fire," he said. "Keep in mind, by the time this expires, Erdogan and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin are meeting, so the question is are they going to have a meeting and carve up Syria for themselves? A cease-fire isn't success -- it's basically saying 'we're going to take a pause.'"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CNN'S STAND-ALONE TURKISH NETWORK APPEARS TO CONTRADICT AMERICAN COVERAGE OF TURKEY'S SYRIA INVASION
Kinzinger said the 120-hour pause in fighting allows the Kurdish population to withdraw from northern Syria, which he said is what Erdogan wanted all along.
"The problem was we never needed to be here," he said.
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"And, evident by the fact we had to bomb our own military base, it was a hasty withdrawal," Kinzinger said.
On "Your World," the Illinois Republican said he believed the U.S. military could not remain in Syria forever, but that Trump's withdrawal was flawed.
"It's another thing to just announce it on Twitter and say you're ending an endless war, when this is the exact kind of map we need to use to win wars with allies in the future without heavy American involvement," he said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Nobody believes that Turkey would have attacked U.S. troops," he added, calling the entire situation "unfortunate."