Posted on 12/26/2018 4:13:06 PM PST by Kaslin
President Trump and First Lady Melania made a surprise visit to Iraq Wednesday after leaving the White House late on Christmas. There, he spoke for nearly 20 minutes to approximately U.S. troops stationed at Al Asad Air Base and met with military leaders.
According to the White House pool report, the group was made up "of about 100 mostly U.S. special operations troops engaged in combat operations in Iraq and Syria."
During his remarks, the Commander-in-Chief encouraged U.S. service members to keep up the fight and vowed to continue the fight against ISIS from Iraq.
"I want to come and pay my respects most importantly to the great soldiers, great troopers we have here," he told reporters.
.@FLOTUS Melania and I were honored to visit our incredible troops at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.! pic.twitter.com/rDlhITDvm1— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2018
The President defended his decision to withdraw troops from Syria and vowed to continue the fight against ISIS from Iraq.
“They said again, recently, can we have more time? I said, ‘Nope.’ You can’t have any more time. You’ve had enough time. We’ve knocked them out. We’ve knocked them silly. I will tell you that I’ve had some very good talks with President Erdogan who wants to knock them out also and he’ll do it. And others will do it to. Because we are in their region. They should be sharing the burden of costs and they’re not," Trump told reporters. “The United States cannot continue to be the policeman of the world.”
“It’s not fair when the burden is all on us, the United States," he continued. “We don’t want to be taken advantage of any more by countries that use us and use our incredible military to protect them. They don’t pay for it, and they’re going to have to.”
President @realDonaldTrump speaks to U.S. troops in Iraq. #TrumpTroopsVisit #USA pic.twitter.com/9CSdO8AwWD— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) December 26, 2018
“In Syria, Erdogan said he wants to knock out ISIS, whatever’s left, the remnants of ISIS. And Saudi Arabia just came out and said they are going to pay for some economic development. Which is great, that means we don’t have to pay," he said. “We are spread out all over the world. We are in countries most people haven’t even heard about. Frankly, it’s ridiculous.”
President Trump's trip comes just days after he announced a drawn down of all U.S. troops in Syria and the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis. He is back on Air Force One and will make an another stop, which has not been announced, on his way back to Washington.
Thank you!
Trump, on surprise trip to Iraq: ‘No plans at all’ to pull troops from there
http://www.wsfa.com/2018/12/26/president-trump-first-lady-make-surprise-visit-troops-iraq/
And there are still troops in and around Syria.
I got my law degree at Costco
unlike Obama I would expect Trump to give pull out dates.
The dynamic duo. Love them both. Prayers for their safety.
RBG apparently bought hers at Dollar General, so your good.
Mr President, every day you prove what a true patriot you are. Will balls the size of Jupiter and a heart as big as Texas.
We are blessed by your continued leadership
Thank you, President Trump!
Disappointing. ISIS cannot be defeated, because ISIS is Islam, so unless we are willing to eradicate Islam from the earth there is no “victory”. How many more years, how many American lives, and how much more more money are we willing to sacrifice on a fool’s errand? Bring the troops home now.
I doubt Melania will later claim she had to dodge sniper fire. :)
CINC walks into the room and NOBODY bothers to bellow "ah-TEN-Shun!"
What is this world coming to?
Iraq is far less secure overall today, than when we had full scale CENTCOM operations conducted from the Al Fah Palace in Baghdad, and Super Bases in Iraq.
As well, this was symbolic to ISIS, as their last murderous strongholds are largely in the Anbar Province of Iraq, of which Al Assad Air Base is the gatekeeper.
In visiting Al Assad, Trump just visited a location which is close to remaining ISIS strongholds! THIS IS PLAIN GUTSY! And it sends a message to ISIS, and potentially to the regional leaders to who is at the helm!
There may well be a bigger context with this visit than what most are seeing.
While hard to believe, **ISIS overran Al Assad Air Base under our Marxist and TRUE Russian collaborator Hussein 0!**
PRESIDENT TRUMPS VISIT TO AL ASSAD AIR BASE, IS AN EXCLAMATION POINT AND SYMBOLIC OF WHAT HE HAS DONE TO ISIS!
While there are other ISIS strongholds north of the Euphrates and north of Al Assad Air Base, **there is a wadi which extends in a general westerly direction from Al Assad Air Base, all the way to Jordan. It is from locations adjacent to, and inside this wadi, with its karst topography, caves, tunnels, box canyons, and slot canyons, from which ISIS hides out. I believe, President Trump just showed them he is not afraid, and his forces are coming after them. And he did it just after they reportedly slaughtered more than 1300 hostages, refugees, and aid workers.
Add to this American symbology, real Iranian hegimonic activity in the region, and Russian and Syrian forces at the Iraqi border, this was gutsy! Most presidents would probably act according to the advice I am sure he received, and not visit under these conditions.
Of course, being that his visit was a success, the mass media and press is highly unlikely to say anything about how dangerous this was, unless to criticize it for being foolish.
This is a truly dangerous area, and this visit was again GUTSY!
THE PRESIDENT REALLY DOES CARE ABOUT OUR FORCES IN HARMS WAY!
In reference to ISIS, this is THE MOST DANGEROUS AOR he could have visited in Iraq or Syria!
No wonder there was no announcement of going there!
SERIOUSLY DUMBTARD CHALLENGED MEDIA!
Please tell me you didn’t go to Dollar General to propose to your wife.
The dress code at WalMart is ridiculous.
Here is the entire speech if you would prefer to listen to him say it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v35t6cEinj0
I’m sure you’re right about that.
I was so proud and happy when I heard that our lovely Melania made the trip. Quite a morale booster, I would imagine.
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