9:03
- ABC News
- Donald Trump
- December 30, 2018
Trump immoral, doesn't tell the truth: McChrystal
The retired four-star general also discussed Trump's recent foreign policy moves
9:03
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/trump-iraq-speech-02-gty-jc-181226_hpEmbed_17x11_384.jpg\")
McChrystal said he understood why many young troops would want signed memorabilia from the president, comparing it to meeting a celebrity, but also warned that it “violated the spirit” of the military code and that the military’s apolitical status should be preserved.
“If we encourage young military members to be Republicans or Democrats or anything particular, you start to create schisms in an infantry platoon,” McChrystal told Raddatz on \"This Week.\"
“I never knew who was a Democrat or Republican and even when we were generals, when you got in a room, you never talked about politics because it was just considered bad form,\" he said. \"I think if we allow it or encourage it, I think we are going to create something that could be a slippery slope.”
McChrystal also disagreed with Trump's announcement to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, warning it would lead to \"greater instability\" in the Middle East.
\"What difference does it make -- does it really make, if those 2,000 U.S. forces leave?\" Raddatz asked.
“If you pull American influence out, you're likely to have greater instability and of course it'll be much more difficult for the United States to try to push events in any direction. There is an argument that says we just pull up our stuff, go home, let the region run itself. That has not done well for the last 50 or 60 years,” McChrystal said.
In announcing the withdrawal from Syria earlier this month, Trump touted victory over the Islamic State, or ISIS, there, declaring, “We have defeated ISIS in Syria.”
We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2018
McChrystal disagreed, citing the continued threat of ISIS’ ideology.
“I don't believe ISIS is defeated,” McChrystal said. “I think ISIS is as much an idea as it is a number of ISIS fighters. There's a lot of intelligence that says there are actually more ISIS fighters around the world now than there were a couple of years ago.”
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/marines-syria-02-ht-jc-171130_hpMain_2_4x3t_384.jpg\")
ABC News has also reported that Trump plans to reduce U.S. forces in Afghanistan by half, about 7,000 troops. In a statement to Bloomberg Friday, Garrett Marquis, a spokesperson for the National Security Council said Trump \"has not made a determination to\" to withdraw troops from Afghanistan or \"directed the Department of Defense to begin the process of withdrawing\" troops. Marquis did not respond when ABC News requested further comment.
\"Do you see that as a problem?\" Raddatz asked McChrystal.
“I think the great mistake in the president's leaked guidance is that just when we were starting to sit down with the Taliban, just we were starting to begin negotiations, he basically traded away the biggest leverage point we have. If you tell the Taliban that we are absolutely leaving on a date ... their incentives to try to cut a deal dropped dramatically,” McChrystal said.
McChrystal added that the decision could have a lasting impact on the trust in the alliance between the United States and the democratically-elected Afghan government it supports.
“Of course I was worried about the confidence of the Afghan people because at the end of the day, that's what determines who wins in Afghanistan,” McChrystal said. “And I think we probably rocked them -- we rocked them in their belief that we are allies that can be counted on.”
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