POLITICS: Republicans slam Trump over plan to withdraw troops from Syria.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a close Trump ally, said it would be an “Obama-like mistake” to remove American troops. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called it a “grave error” and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said Trump’s declaration that ISIS has been defeated is “simply not true.”

“An American withdrawal at this time would be a big win for ISIS, Iran, Bashar al Assad of Syria, and Russia,” Graham said in a statement. “I fear it will lead to devastating consequences for our nation, the region, and throughout the world.”

Earlier in the day, two senior defense officials and a third person familiar with the plan told NBC News that the U.S. is preparing to withdraw a significant number of the roughly 2,000 troops that remain in Syria.

Trump has been telegraphing the move for most of the past year at campaign rallies and in other venues.

“We’re knocking the hell out of ISIS,” he said in March. “We’ll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now.”

The only interest the US has in Syria is keeping the terrorist threat to us down, and if we can do that without boots on the ground, that would be great. Keeping Iran in check is more of an Israeli/Saudi interest, and their de facto alliance works well enough.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): I’m pretty agnostic on Syria, as noted below, but this is hard to argue with: