Amongst the rest of the hot, rambling mess that was "the greatest speech ever," Donald Trump managed to give aid and comfort to Iran, and to every other nation that sees the US as simply a rapacious empire that wants to take their stuff.[1]
'The old expression, ‘to the victor belong the spoils’—you remember. I always used to say, keep the oil. I wasn’t a fan of Iraq. I didn’t want to go into Iraq. But I will tell you, when we were in, we got out wrong. And I always said, in addition to that, keep the oil. Now, I said it for economic reasons. But if you think about it, Mike, if we kept the oil you probably wouldn’t have ISIS because that’s where they made their money in the first place. So we should have kept the oil. But okay. Maybe you’ll have another chance. But the fact is, should have kept the oil.'
And then he repeated it during last night's ("I'll tell you three times, watch it!") ABC TV interview.
So, thank you, President Trump, for confirming to the rest of the world that when the US military shows up — maybe to fight terrorists, maybe to stop a genocide, maybe to help in a disaster — that we're really there to take whatever we can find, and that we're arguably as good a target to shoot at as whoever else they might be shooting at.
And our troops and special forces already in Iraq, helping the the Iraqis and other local groups continue to defeat ISIL, are, I'm sure, thrilled to now have their allies on the ground wondering if they're going to be as much of a menace as ISIL has been.
Rachel Maddow has also been all over this story:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-keep-the-oil-policy-puts-us-troops-at-risk-861220931920
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/iraq-on-edge-at-trump-keep-the-oil-talk-862957123806
Someone really needs to put this guy on tape delay. Winning friends and influencing people he's not.
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[1] Which isn't to say that we haven't at times actually been a rapacious empire wanting to take people's stuff, but we generally have not adopted that as our vision statement.
The Dangerous Delusion of ‘We Should’ve Kept the Oil’ – The Atlantic
The president has said he wants to support the troops, but his careless comments put U.S. lives at risk in Iraq.
