President says first war zone visit in the works
Offers no details on timeline, location
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump frequently credits himself with accomplishing more for the military and veterans than any other president in recent memory. But he has yet to embark on what has long been a traditional presidential pilgrimage important to the military: a visit to troops deployed in a war zone.
As he departed on Tuesday for Florida to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday at his private club in Palm Beach, Mr Trump said he’d soon correct the oversight.
“I’m going to a war zone,’’ he said in response to a reporter’s question about his support for the troops. He did not say when he would be making the trip or to which conflict area he would be going. An official said a White House team recently returned from beginning to plan for a visit.
The omission is one of a long list of norm-breaking moves that underscore the president’s increasingly fraught relationship with the military, which has celebrated Mr Trump’s investments in defence spending but cringed at what some see as efforts to politicise their service.
Just this week, Mr Trump levelled criticism against the storied commander of the 2011 mission that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, retired Adm William McRaven. “Wouldn’t it have been nice if we got Osama bin Laden a lot sooner than that, wouldn’t it have been nice,’’ Mr Trump said.
The latest controversy followed a pattern of concerns raised by former senior military officers about Mr Trump’s grasp of the military’s role, and it comes as White House aides and defence officials have raised alarm about what they view as the president’s disinterest in briefings about troop deployments overseas.
Shortly after taking office, Mr Trump appeared to try to deflect responsibility for the death of a service member in a failed operation in Yemen, saying planning for the mission began under his predecessor and was backed by senior military commanders. “They explained what they wanted to do, the generals, who are very respected,’’ he told “Fox & Friends’’ at the time. “And they lost Ryan.’’
Mr Trump won the White House on a platform of ending US military commitments abroad, but he’s been bedeviled by many of the same challenges as his predecessors. More American troops are now deployed in conflict zones than when he took office.
Aides have suggested that Mr Trump is wary of travelling to conflict zones where he doesn’t fully support the mission. Mr Trump begrudgingly backed a surge of troops in Afghanistan last year and boosted US deployments in Iraq, Syria and Africa to counter the Islamic State and other extremist groups.
Mr Trump said last week in a “Fox News Sunday’’ interview that he was “very much opposed to the war in Iraq. I think it was a tremendous mistake, should have never happened.’’
Mr Trump, in fact, offered lukewarm support for the invasion at the time but began offering public doubts about the mission after the conflict began in March 2003.
In the same interview, Mr Trump was asked why he hadn’t visited the troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan yet. “Well, I think you will see that happen,’’ he said. “There are things that are being planned.’’
Mr Trump said in another recent interview that he doesn’t think visiting troops in a war zone is “overly necessary’’. “I’ve been very busy with everything that’s taking place here,’’ he added.