Sen. Lindsey Graham expressed disagreement with President-elect Donald Trump's contention that the United States should "not get involved in Syria" in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Assad regime, telling NBC News' "Meet the Press" on Sunday that there is an American national interest that ISIS should not be allowed to take advantage of the power vacuum there.
The South Carolina Republican did agree with Trump that the U.S. should "leave it up to the Syrians to form their new government, what kind of country they want to be to a point," but stressed that "we do have an interest in preventing ISIS from coming back on the battlefield."
Graham explained that "for five years, [ISIS] reigned terror in America, all over Europe, slaughtering people. ISIS fighters are killing machines. They want to purify Islam. They want to take down the king of Jordan, the king of Saudi Arabia. They want to replace the UAE with a theocracy."
The senator emphasized that "you don't want these people in charge of the Mideast. They want to drive us out of the Mideast and they want to destroy our friends in Israel."
He also pointed out that "there are 50,000 ISIS fighters under the control of Kurdish allies of the United States in northeastern Syria. It is in our national security interest they do not break out of jail and reestablish the caliphate. It is in our national security interest that we help the Kurds who destroyed the caliphate on our behalf."
Graham reiterated that "I do not want ISIS to break out of jail. Turkey is putting pressure on the Kurds in northeastern Syria. We need a demilitarized zone."
The senator conceded that "Turkey has legitimate concerns about some of these Kurdish elements," but stressed that "if Turkey attacks the Kurds and these ISIS fighters break out of jail, it's a nightmare for us. It's a nightmare for Syria. It's a nightmare for the world. That cannot happen."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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