Trump Now Says U.S. Military 'Should Never Ever Have Left' Iraq

[DonViejo]

Source: Talking Points Memo


By MATT SHUHAM Published MARCH 20, 2017, 5:58 PM EDT

Contrary to a series of past statements on the issue, President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. military “should never ever have left” Iraq in 2011.

“Certainly we shouldn’t have left. We should never ever have left,” Trump told Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi at the White House. “And a vacuum was created, and we discussed what happened.”

“But we’ll spend a lot of time with you, with your group, and thank you all very much for being here, we appreciate it,” Trump continued. “And we will figure something out. Our main thrust is we have to get rid of ISIS. We’re going to get rid of ISIS. It will happen, it’s happening right now."

Trump has a rich history of changing opinions on the war in Iraq. He was for the United States’ 2003 invasion of the country before his opinion changed somewhat, first evidenced in a 2004 Esquire interview ("Look at the war in Iraq and the mess that we're in. I would never have handled it that way.”)

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-says-us-military-should-not-have-left-iraq

---

Iraqi Prime Minister Jokes: 'We Had Nothing To Do' With Wiretaps

By ESME CRIBB Published MARCH 20, 2017, 4:17 PM EDT

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi joked on Monday that his country "had nothing to do" with wiretaps, a subject Trump raised more than two weeks ago and has refused to back away from.

"We had nothing to do with the wiretap," Abadi joked in front of reporters, according to a White House pool report.

FBI Director James Comey on Monday told the House Intelligence Committee that he had "no information" to support Trump's unsubstantiated claims that President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower before the 2016 election.

"I have no information that supports those tweets," Comey said. "And we looked carefully inside the FBI."

###

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/iraqi-prime-minister-we-had-nothing-to-do-with-wiretap

[Siwsan]

1. No doubt he's calling on his extensive military experience to reach that conclusion

[Submariner]

4. He already said he knows more than HIS Generals.

and he knows lots of words too.

[Siwsan]

6. Historically, that has never worked out particularly well, for the self-appointed military expert

I'll mention Caligula, for starters.

[lastlib]

22. Five deferments can teach you a great deal about miltary service....

...and military strategery (sic) and tic-tacs--I mean, tactics!

And we know how well that all works out.....

[BeyondGeography]

2. Easy for Mr. Bone Spur to say

Stupid, too.

[Aristus]

3. Over 4,000 of our soldiers never did, you hamhock!

What an asshole!

[SummerSnow]

5. Need an invasion to distract from his criminal ties

[Wellstone ruled]

8. Your reply is right on.

The Rat is cornered and he will lash out at some one just to take the heat off himself.

[elleng]

7. Oh RiGHT, mr. cheney!

[Angry Dragon]

9. Never should have gone in

and what is forgotten is that the Iraqi government told us to leave
and Bush/Cheney created Isis .............. mostly made up of out of work Iraqi army

[jmowreader]

10. Great, Donald...

I have a cute idea: if The Donald really wants to re-invade Iraq, let's throw it to a vote in Congress under the following conditions:

Condition 1: taxes will be increased to pay for the war
Condition 2: the pay of every Congressman will be reduced to that of a randomly selected Army colonel
Condition 3: Trump's pay will be reduced to that of the 45th troop to walk through the gate of a randomly-selected motor pool on Fort Hood, Texas, the morning of Monday, April 10. Further, the unit who owns the motor pool will be informed they're the one three weeks out so they can find a soldier who's willing to be temporarily busted to Private E-1 long enough to be the 45th man through the motor pool gate on April 10.
Condition 4, and this is most important: Every Member of Congress who votes for the war, every member of Trump's administration, and Trump himself will submit the names of every member of his or her family who are between the ages of 17 and 45. All those people will be immediately conscripted into the Army as privates and will be sent to the war zone.

[mahina]

11. Please tell us all about your rich understanding of the events of that process.

I'm very interested to hear in his own words how he would have navigated that time, and what events and forces he thinks were or were not important.

Give the man a microphone and some follow up questions for the love of all things. And follow up some more.

He knows nothing.

[Mc Mike]

12. And he was ALWAYS opposed to going into Iraq, too. He sez, all the time. Nt

[C_U_L8R]

13. As Commander in Chief

He's welcome to go sightseeing in Baghdad any time.

[The_Casual_Observer]

14. We left Iraq because the govenment of Iraq

Refused the terms required for us to stay there.
As usual dump is talking out of his fat ass again.

[ProudLib72]

15. How long before

tRump can stand in front of a banner that reads "Mission Accomplished"?

[Ken Burch]

16. He's saying the troops stood have stayed even though the Iraqi government wanted them gone?

Is he saying we should have overthrown the Iraqi government if it wouldn't LET the troops say?

That we should have stayed even though the unending U.S. military presence in the Arab/Muslim world is the main reason ISIS/ISIL/Daesh emerged in the first place?

[dalton99a]

17. Ignorant demented asshole

[nikibatts]

18. That was not our call. Iraqis did not want us there.

[yardwork]

19. He claimed that he was always against the Iraq war.

[noneof_theabove]

20. Less memory that my 9yro cat with dementia...

...The withdrawal was done by Bush. His going away present.

Pres. Obama and all the Generals in the world could not get around it.

Of course the congress-critters could have made changes but the majority there are lamer that pond scum.

[yuiyoshida]

21. GIVE HIM A PISTOL AND SEND HIM TO IRAQ....

愚かなろくでなし!!!

[jeanmarc]

23. It's time to take out Mad King Donald

By lawful means. I've never seen anyone so easily switched on opinion.

Remember, he used to be a Democrat kind of guy and actually cared about women's issues, in public.

Now, who knows what he is, but almost the entire cabinet is filled with jackals that are there to destroy departments and agencies.

And now he's switching on Iraq.

We're probably going into North Korea. We're likely trying to get permission from China to do it, but which nation is the war nation? It's us. I almost hope Germany or someone conquers us so we can stop our war tendency. Those bullets need to empty so we can make more bullets and build the military. There's just too much money invested.

We're fucked as a nation. Eisenhower was right. And we have a clueless moron as President that will sign anything in front of his face. Which is why the GOP is ignoring his insanity and salivating putting bad legislation on his desk.

I really hate this time in our country's history. It feels bad now and feels like it could get even worse so easily.

[JackRiddler]

24. He has said this repeatedly starting with campaign and...

it is part of his "take their oil" and "should have kept the oil" raps. The former phrase was already in the first official Trump commercial and should be considered programmatic. My own view is that sowing further chaos in the Middle East does something that Exxon likes: takes "their oil" off the market.