NASHVILLE - Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Graves, of Georgia, says he voted against last week's nonbinding resolution condemning President Donald Trump's withdrawal of U.S. troops from northeast Syria for several reasons, including it having being hurried through the House.
"The rush to pass this resolution came without the opportunity for greater deliberation, and without classified briefings for all House members, as has been the norm on national security matters in the past," the congressman from Ranger said.
He also noted in his statement that after hearing U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper before the vote he "left the meeting convinced that the resolution would be harmful to our government's efforts to navigate a very complicated situation."
Graves was one of 60 Republican lawmakers voting against the resolution, which generally enjoyed widespread bipartisan support but split GOP members from Georgia and Tennessee.
The congressman said the resolution "claimed President Trump's military orders are a benefit to America's adversaries, an assertion that I find deeply offensive. I agree with President Trump's goal to keep our country out of endless wars."
Moreover, Graves said, "I also believe it was inappropriate for Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi to bring this resolution to a vote as Vice President [Mike] Pence and Secretary of State [Mike] Pompeo were traveling to Turkey to negotiate the current ceasefire."
The resolution passed on a 354-60 vote with 129 Republicans voting in favor of it.
Republican U.S. Rep. John Rose, of Tennessee, who also opposed the resolution, said that "like many Tennesseans, I have concerns about the potential consequences of pulling our troops out of the conflict in Syria without a plan in place to protect against a resurgent ISIS or to ensure the safety of our Kurdish allies.
"However," the Cookeville congressman added, "folks at home also know we are involved in too many never-ending wars and want to bring our men and women in uniform home. My co-sponsorship of the Countering Turkish Aggression Act of 2019 underscores both my commitment to our allies and support for sanctions on Turkey as we closely monitor this ongoing, critical situation."
Former Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, of Tennessee, the one-time Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, last week called Trump's "green light" to Turkey's invasion of northern Syria a "betrayal of huge proportions" that "jerked the rug" out from under America's Kurdish allies.
Saying it was "all so unnecessary and uncalled for," Corker added, "of course it's evident now that the president wishes he had not [done] that very un-thought-out, sloppy phone call that he had" with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow on Twitter @AndySher1.