departure. we start with the guardrail of the administration. he will leave at the end of february. he tendered his resignation the day after the president revealed his plans to withdrawal troops from syria. his departure shaking washington and creating uncertainty at the pentagon and at military bases around the world. mattis resignation is a rebuke to the president s foreign policy views. mattis using his letter to promote the importance of u.s. alliance and unambiguous approach to russia and china. the last straw was the planned withdrawal from syria. for more, here is barbara starr at the pentagon. reporter: alison and dave, an administration official tells cnn that secretary mattis decided early thursday morning at 7:30 that he needed to go to the white house one more time and meet with president trump and try to convince him not to withdrawal u.s. troops from syria. mattis was very concerned about the fate of the kurdish fighters that the u.s. has backed.
senior international correspondent ivan watson in hong kong. reporter: dave, the afghan government is coming out striking a proud note of the possible u.s. drawdown of troops. the chief adviser to the afghan president tweeted this, if the few thousand troops leave, it will not affect our security. in the past four and a half years, our security is in the hands of afghans. the goal is the afghan armed forces will stand on their feet to defend soil. the fact is the longest american ov overseas conflict, 17 years, is not going well. 29,000 afghan soldiers and police have been killed in the conflict since 2015. according to the special investigator general for afghanistan reconstruction, a
isolationist view and believes the u.s. does not have a frontline role anymore in fighting terror groups like isis. alison, dave. barbara starr, thank you. secretary mattis decision to quit literally stunning capitol hill. one conservative republican who supports president trump may be wondering if the wheels are coming off. after reading the resignation letter, marco rubio tweeted it is clear we are headed toward a number of grave policy errors. he calls on people who support president trump to persuade him to choose a different direction. democrats are shaken. mark warner tweeting this. this is scary. national defense is too important to be subjected to the president s erratic whims. also weighing in is william cohen. a republican who served as defense secretary for bill clinton.
u.s. with the storm system moving through. it may mess up your holiday weekend travel plans. here is meteorologist derek van dam. good morning, alison and dave. unfortunately mother nature has terrible timing this year. we have the busiest travel day of the year taking place today and the major east coast storm causing travel headaches from new england to the southeast. you see on the map all the rain and storms associated with the system from the ohio river valley and atlantic coastline. there could be travel delays at the airports as well. we have 70 million americans under flood watches this morning including boston and philly. we could see 2 to 4 inches of rainfall in the next 24 hours. just outside of new york city where you see the shading of yellow and orange. in terms of temperatures, a roller coaster. one more mild day for the
two officials quoted him as being livid. for more, here is barbara starr at the pentagon. reporter: alison and dave, an administration official tells cnn that secretary mattis decided early thursday morning at 7:30 that he needed to go to the white house one more time and meet with president trump and try to convince him not to withdrawal u.s. troops from syria. mattis was very concerned about the fate of the kurdish fighters that the u.s. has backed. as a military man, it is a terrible thing to leave your friends on the battle field that you promised to stay and support. that became a big problem for mattis to leave the kurds behind and withdrawal u.s. troops. he met with president trump at 3:00. expressed his views. the president did not change his mind. mattis had a resignation letter ready to go telling the president in that letter that he deserved someone who was more aligned with his views.