Pat Robertson, host of The 700 Club, began Monday’s show with a grave warning for President Donald Trump: Withdraw from Syria at your own risk. Robertson says Trump is “in danger of losing the mandate of heaven” if he goes through with plans—announced late Sunday evening—to withdraw from Syria.
But Robertson says the decision to withdraw U.S. military forces will likely immediately result in the massacre of Christians and Kurds in the region.
“Invasion is imminent from the ground and from the air,” Robertson says. “Turkey is ready to charge at Assyria, putting our allies the Kurds in grave danger. … And ladies and gentlemen, I want to say right now that I am absolutely appalled that the United States is going to betray those democratic forces in Northern Syria, that we possibly are going to allow the Turkish to come in against the Kurds. [Turkish President Tayyip] Erdogan is a thug. He has taken control of his country as a dictator. He is a strong leader and to say he’s an ally of America is nonsense. He is in for himself, and the president—who allowed Khashoggi to be cut in pieces without any repercussions whatsoever—is now allowing the Christians and the Kurds to be massacred by the Turks. I believe—and I want to say this with great solemnity—the president of the United States is in danger of losing the mandate of heaven if he permits this to happen.”
Robertson isn’t the only Christian leader to disapprove of Trump’s plans. Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee rebuked POTUS for abandoning the Kurds:
I generally support @POTUS on foreign policy & don’t want our troops fighting other nations’ wars, but a HUGE mistake to abandon Kurds. They’ve never asked us to do THEIR fighting-just give them tools to defend themselves. They have been faithful allies. We CANNOT abandon them.
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) October 7, 2019
CBN’s David Brody also tweeted against Trump’s decision, tweeting that the “Trump administration just threw a PUNCH TO THE GUT of the evangelical community. The Kurds are left as sitting ducks and scores of religious & ethnic Minorities could be slaughtered by Erdogan. Sad day!”
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins says on Twitter that “an invasion by Turkey in NE Syria would pose a grave threat to the region’s Kurds and Christians, endangering the prospects of true religious freedom in the Middle East.”
Watch The 700 Club‘s full episode—including Robertson’s opening remarks—embedded in this article. {eoa}
