Posted on 02/20/2017 6:13:09 AM PST by elhombrelibre
The U.S. military is not in Iraq "to seize anybody's oil", Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said, distancing himself from remarks by President Donald Trump at the start of a visit to Iraq on Monday.
Mattis, on his first trip to Iraq as Pentagon chief, is hoping to assess the war effort as U.S.-backed Iraqi forces launch a new push to evict Islamic State militants from their remaining stronghold in the city of Mosul.
But he is likely to face questions about Trump's remarks and actions, including a temporary ban on travel to the United States and for saying America should have seized Iraq's oil after toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Trump told CIA staff in January: "We should have kept the oil. But okay. Maybe you'll have another chance."
Mattis, however, flatly ruled out any such intent. "We're not in Iraq to seize anybody's oil," he told reporters traveling with him.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
He never said he was going to take the oil now.
Rooters fake news
Perhaps someone can explain in clear terms how the huge American sacrifice in material and human has enhanced the security of the American people and why we are still entangled in this Sunni/Shiite war.
It’s fake because it didn’t happen, SECDEF Mattis didn’t say the words quoted?
But we’ll need you to turn over the Baklava, nice & slow.
We’re there for China’s oil
We sacrificed our troops and our treasure to overthrow Saddam and lift Iraq from sanctions and try to stabilize the region
China moved in and took over the business
That is what Trump knows
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/world/middleeast/china-reaps-biggest-benefits-of-iraq-oil-boom.html
Yeah, the markets don’t always allow us to get other nation’s oil, in this case, Iraq’s. Not fair, I suppose. We kept our word.
That’d be a sweeter deal.
Correct. We are here for OUR oil.
Oh, the latest attempt by the media to set the agenda.
As an alternative, would you back off and allow ISIS to win?
ISIS oil is Turkey’s oil. This is to say, ISIS oil is Erdogan’s oil. The first thing on our hit list should be the oil convoys into Turkey.
Once that revenue stream has been cut off, things should be a lot easier.
That’s been done, some time ago.
ISIS is being checked and being destroyed by strategic realities. Russia will not allow nearby Syria to become a jihadist Islamic state. They, endemic non Jihadist, non Sunni forces within Syria and the Kurds are the natural enemies of ISIS which is a Sunni jihadist movement. The Iranians and other Shiites in Iraq are also their opposition. Turkey’s dream of establishing a new caliphate through ISIS and the Saudis attempt to use them to establish a militant Sunni state to oppose Iran have failed. ISIS, like the rest of fundamentalist Islamic culture is not sustainable or compatible with the values, institutions or practices of modernity. In short it is up to the locals themselves to achieve their own consensus. American involvement in the region has not enhanced the security of the American people and has been futile.
In the 18th Century, the British navy kept the sea lanes open and fought back against international slave trade and pirates. Many people besides the Brits benefited. You cannot always do the right thing and be the sole beneficiary. It’s simply not possible.
See, that’s the trick. The quote is real but the whole context is fake. Trump never said the mission was to take the oil so Mattis isn’t “distancing himself from Trump”. That’s how you get fake news with a real quote. Sophisticated isn’t it! Update your fake news filter
How is this success occurring that you note? Is it just the firmness of Russia not allowing?
What the hell ARE our troops there for?
The turning point in the Islamic civil war was when ISIS was unable to take Baghdad and the Syrians retook Aleppo. ISIS cannot achieve its goal. The issue of dealing with fundamentalist Islamic barbarism and terrorism is a separate issue and that responsibility lies with the skill,insight commitment and perseverance of Western leaders which frankly has been lacking over the past decade.
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