The decision of Mattis comes a day after President Donald Trump declared that the US would pull its troops out of Syria. Trump’s contention was that the IS was defeated there and so no need to keep the US forces.
Informed sources say that Mattis was against the pull-out of the troops. It is learnt that Mattis was against withdrawing forces from Afghanistan too, a thing Trump wants to discuss.
That Mattis is resigning for differences with Trump becomes obvious when he says in his letter to the President “you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position.”
This makes it amply clear that the views of Mattis were not compatible with those of Trump’s. Mattis is considered an able and level-headed person who, as defense secretary, believes that the US should show respect to its allies and work in close tandem with them. Trump, on the other hand has been running down the allies in recent times.
Trump however reacts to the Mattis resignation with apparent calm and treats it as a routine, normal affair.
