The top commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East told a Senate committee on Tuesday that he was not asked for his advice about a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria before President Donald Trump announced his decision. "I was not aware of the specific announcement," Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of U.S. Central Command, told Sen. Angus King at the Armed Services Committee Tuesday. "Certainly we were aware that he had expressed a desire and intent in the past to depart... Syria." "So you were not consulted before that decision was announced?" asked King, an independent from Maine. "We were not -- I was not consulted," Votel said.