“Horror vacui,” Aristotle once postulated. “Nature abhors a vacuum.” When a space becomes devoid of matter, there is a natural pull to fill that void with something, anything. On December 19, President Donald Trump made the decision to pull America’s troops out of Syria. In doing so, he is removing the primary Western military influence from the region. Something or someone is going to have to fill that new void, and Russia, Iran, and Turkey are excitedly waiting in the wings to slip on in.

Despite the Pentagon’s determination that there are upwards of 14,500 ISIS fighters,[1] the president tweeted, “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.”[2] Although White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders qualified the President’s total victory statement later in the morning, the planned withdrawal is still in the works with the pullout being completed in 60–100 days. Soon after the decision to withdraw from Syria was made, Trump followed up with an order to draw up departure plans for Afghanistan.

The reaction to President Trump’s decisions is telling. Defense Secretary Mattis promptly resigned, followed soon after by Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIL. Many in America’s military leadership are surprised and bewildered by the move, and there has been bipartisan criticism within the halls of congress.

On the other side, a senior Afghani Taliban commander celebrated the decision, “The 17-year-long struggle and sacrifices of thousands of our people finally yielded fruit. . . . We proved to the entire world that we defeated the self-proclaimed world’s lone super power.”[3] Not surprisingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin also voiced praise: “If the decision to withdraw was made, then it is a correct one.”[4] When Russia and the Taliban are praising your decision to leave a strategic theater, then it may be worth reconsidering.

While I greatly appreciate and fully support President Trump’s desire for peace in the region and his desire to bring American troops home to their families, it must happen in the right time and in the right way. The stability of the region needs to be considered, as does the safety of American allies. Unfortunately, a precipitous pull-out puts both of these factors at risk. The Kurds, who have been leading the fight on the ground in Syria, see the pull-out as a betrayal and wonder what will be next for them. Arin Sheikmos, a Kurdish journalist, said, “We have every right to be afraid. . . . If the Americans pull out and leave us to the Turks or the [Syrian] regime, our destiny will be like the Kurds of Iraqi Kurdistan in 1991.”[5] The 1991 reference harks back to the time when the U.S. encouraged the Kurds to rise up against Iraq. Yet when they did, America refused to come to their aid.

This is also creating a difficult situation for Israel. With less American influence in the region, the anti-Israel alliance of Russia, Iran, and Turkey will only grow stronger. Once Russia is fully established in Syria, Israel and its vast gas fields are just a border away. While the church may see us moving closer to the End Times, events that fits the prophecies of Ezekiel 38, it is still a dangerous eventuality for the Jewish nation.

On December 30, Senator Lindsey Graham, who also was concerned with this move, met with the president and was heartened by what he heard regarding the administration’s ongoing commitment to eradicate ISIS from the region. This is a positive sign and is also a good reminder that there is always more at work than what we see on the surface and in short news clips.

President Trump should be lauded for commitment to America’s military and financial security. There is no doubt that in the short-run, both lives and money will be saved by pulling out from the region. However, the long-term effects of handing the reins to authoritarian and expansionist regimes could eventually greatly outweigh whatever might be gained. Ultimately, as an American and an Israeli, my encouragement for the U.S. president is to ensure, before pulling our military out of Syria and Afghanistan, that we leave no military vacuum open to Russia, Turkey, or worst of all, Iran.

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[1] Borger, Julian, and Martin Chulov. “Trump Shocks Allies and Advisers with Plan to Pull US Troops out of Syria.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 20 Dec. 2018, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/19/us-troops-syria-withdrawal-trump.

[2] Trump, Donald J. Twitter, 19 Dec. 2018, twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1075397797929775105?s=21.

[3] Yusufzai, Mushtaq, et al. “Taliban Greets Pentagon’s Withdrawal of Troops from Afghanistan with Cries of Victory.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 21 Dec. 2018, www.nbcnews.com/news/world/taliban-greets-pentagon-s-withdrawal-troops-afghanistan-cries-victory-n950811.

[4] Hodge, Nathan, Laura Smith -Spark, and Radina Gigova. “Putin Praises Trump’s Syria Withdrawal Plan.” CNN, 20 Dec. 2018. https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/20/europe/putin-russia-news-conference-intl/index.html

[5] Chulov, Martin, et al. “US Syria Pullout Draws Kurdish Condemnation and Putin’s Praise.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 20 Dec. 2018, www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/20/syria-kurds-trump-troop-withdrawal-isis-turkey.