Trump declares end to policeman role for US on surprise Iraq visit
‘No plans at all’ to pull out of Iraq, which can be used as base to fight IS in Syria
WASHINGTON/AL-ASADAIRBASE,IRAQ: The United States cannot continue to be the policeman of the world, President Donald Trump has said during an unannounced visit to Iraq, his first to a conflict zone involving American forces since taking charge.
Trump defended his decision to withdraw troops from Syria and signalled unhappiness with the deployment in Afghanistan.
“The United States cannot continue to be the policeman of the world,” Trump said, reiterating his frustration that other countries are not doing enough and the ‘America First’ vision that he has pushed in bilateral and multilateral relations. “It’s not fair when the burden is all on us, the United States.”
Trump said he expects Turkey, Russia and countries in the region to pick it up from here, and went on to defend his decision to withdraw the 2,000 US troops in Syria that have been battling the Islamic State (IS).
“I gave notice in Syria... you know, the way it was reported was like I just pulled out; I didn’t just pull out,” Trump told reporters when asked about his decision, taken despite the advice to the contrary from senior aides such as James Mattis, who quit in protest as defence secretary, as did Brett Mcgurk, the US special envoy to the international coalition fighting IS.
Trump added, “I’ve been talking about it for a year and a half. I’ve been telling the generals, ‘Let’s go. Go ahead, take more time. Let’s go. Take more time.’ Constantly giving them more time.
“Finally, I said, ‘Okay, it’s now time for others to take over that fight.’ We don’t want to be there.”
“We’re not the suckers of the world. We’re no longer the suckers, folks. And people aren’t looking at us as suckers.”
Asked about US troops in Iraq — a little over 5,000 — Trump said unequivocally t hat he had “no plans at all” of pulling them out yet. “In fact, we could use this as a base if we wanted to do something in Syria. If ...you take ISIS and if we see something happening with ISIS that we don’t like, we can hit them so fast and so hard, they ...really won’t know what the hell happened.”
“We’ve been here, and if you look at Afghanistan, 19 years,” Trump said. That may not be correct, as it has been officially acknowledged that the US troop presence in Afghanistan has crossed 17 years, having started in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
DID PREZ COMPROMISE SECRETIVE SEAL TEAM?
Trump may have inadvertently unmasked a Navy SEAL team during his short visit to Iraq.
Ordinarily, the whereabouts of special operations forces are a closely held secret. But after his lightning trip,trump tweeted a video of him posing for photos with US troops, shaking their hands and signing mementos. In one scene, he is giving a thumbs up alongside a group of what appear to be special operations forces.
According to the pool report of the event, a man called Kyu Lee told Trump he was the chaplain for SEAL Team Five. Lee recalled Trump telling him: “Hey, in that case, let’s take a picture.”
While the president has broad authority to declassify information, some observers called it a breach of operational security.