Iraq
FREE NEWS LINKS
HOME
SEARCH
Updates & changes ongoing ....
---- Although this site is
https-secure, we cannot guarantee that it or any provided links are safe; be sure your antivirus
and other security systems are up to date.
Jump to: 2017; 2018; 2019;
2020;
-- 2016 --
February 17: Trump on Iraq: How Could We
Have Been So Stupid? "One Of The Worst Decisions In The History Of The Country"
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/02/17/trump_on_iraq_how_could_we_have_been_so_stupid_one_of_the_worst_decisions_in_the_history_of_the_country.html
February 19: Donald Trump and the Iraq War
A timeline of Trump statements about the Iraq war, before and after it started,
from September 2002 to December 2003.
https://www.factcheck.org/2016/02/donald-trump-and-the-iraq-war/
February 19: Donald Trump defends 2002
interview on Iraq war
In a September 2002 interview with Howard Stern, billionaire Donald Trump was
asked directly if he supported invading Iraq.
Trump's response then, six months before the Mar. 2003 invasion of Iraq, was,
"Yeah, I guess so,"
Nearly 14 years later, critics are now pointing to that clip, first reported by
BuzzFeed News, as proof positive that Donald Trump lied about his opposition to
the Iraq war -- a war that he has repeatedly slammed his rivals (and
their family members) over while on the campaign trail.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-defends-2002-interview-on-iraq-war/
September 27: 2003 clip backs up Trump on
Iraq War opposition
After all the clamor for moderators to fact-check the candidates during Monday
night's presidential debate, Donald Trump flipped the script on Lester Holt by
rejecting his assertion Trump backed the war in Iraq - and history backs The
Donald.
Holt began one question by stating that Republican nominee Trump “had supported
the war in Iraq before the invasion,” a frequent claim from critics that Trump
has adamantly disputed during the primary and general election seasons. Holt on
Monday, and many in the media before him, pointed to a September 2002 interview
Trump gave to Howard Stern in which he said “Yeah, I guess so” in response to a
question about whether President Bush should go to war.
When Trump pushed back on Holt, saying “I was against the war in Iraq,” Holt
countered: “The record does not show that.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/09/27/2003-clip-backs-up-trump-on-iraq-war-opposition.html
September 27: Of all the myths of Donald
Trump’s presidential campaign, few are as enduring as his claim to have opposed
the war in Iraq from its inception. Trump used his alleged opposition to the
invasion as a bludgeon in the Republican primary, tearing down challengers such
as Jeb Bush and positioning himself as a prescient foreign policy thinker. Since
winning the nomination, he’s repeatedly attacked Hillary Clinton for supporting
the war. And he again insisted that he opposed the invasion during Monday’s
presidential debate.
The problem is that there’s no evidence that Trump voiced his opposition to the
war like he says he did; the only statements he gave prior to the invasion were
supportive of it. And his own explanations of his position have in turn opened
up even more contradictions in his record.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/09/every-position-donald-trump-iraq/
October 9: Here is audio evidence of Donald
Trump saying he supported the Iraq War
https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/donald-trump-support-iraq-war-audio/
-- 2017 --
January 22: Trump Says U.S. Should Have
Stolen Iraq’s Oil, and ‘Maybe We’ll Have Another Chance’
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/01/trump-u-s-may-get-another-chance-to-take-iraqi-oil.html
January 26: Whether he
realizes it or not, Donald Trump is putting
Americans in danger with careless rhetoric about taking
Iraqi oil.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-creates-new-dangers-provocative-comments-about-iraqi-oil
February 13:
Memo to Trump: Iraq Is Too Big to Fail
If the president derails the U.S. alliance with Baghdad, the only ones to
benefit would be Iran and the Islamic State.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/02/13/memo-to-trump-iraq-is-too-big-to-fail/
March 1: New Trump travel ban removes Iraq
from list
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/iraq-trump-travel-ban-removed
March 31: Trump makes a deal with Iraq, and
hundreds suddenly face deportation
A state of limbo is about to lift for hundreds of Iraqis in the United States.
The government tried to deport them after they committed crimes, but Iraq
wouldn’t take them back.
Now some of them are headed home – and, quite possibly, into danger.
http://michiganradio.org/post/trump-makes-deal-iraq-and-hundreds-suddenly-face-deportation
August 23:
Trump Has Bashed Obama’s Actions in Iraq. But He’s Actually No Better
Since Trump has become president, civilian deaths in Syria and Iraq are
occurring at a rate of a dozen a day, according to one report.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/trump-obama-civilians-deaths-syria-iraq
September 1: How Iraq War Hawks Can Help
Stop Trump from Going to War with Iran
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-iraq-war-hawks-can-help-stop-trump-from-going-to-war-with-iran
September 7: Trump repeats wrong claim that
he opposed Iraq War
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/sep/07/donald-trump/trump-repeats-wrong-claim-he-opposed-iraq-war/
September 12: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider
Al-‘Abadi announced on Saturday afternoon that his nation has been freed from
the Islamic State (IS).
In a swift operation that covered over 13,000 square kilometers, the Iraqi Armed
Forces managed to rip through the Islamic State’s last defenses and liberate
their entire border with Syria.
While they no longer control any ground in Iraq, the Islamic State is believed
to possess several sleeper cells around the country, which requires the Iraqi
counter-terrorism teams to remain alert.
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/iraq-fully-liberated-isis/
October 17: Trump Says He Won't Take Sides
As Iraqi Forces Oust Kurds From Kirkuk
Trump spoke after Iraqi troops and tanks swept across the northern province,
capturing oil and military sites from the Kurds and seizing the governor's
office in Kirkuk city.
https://www.rferl.org/a/iraq-kirkuk-kurdish-region-clashes-islamic-state/28797237.html
October 21:
As Donald Trump blusters, Iran is
reshaping the Arab world
America’s Shia and Kurdish allies in Iraq turn on each other just as they
are about to defeat the jihadists of Islamic State
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2017/10/21/as-donald-trump-blusters-iran-is-reshaping-the-arab-world
December 1: Under Trump, U.S. Troops In War
Zones Are On The Rise
Since President Trump came into office, U.S. troop numbers have been edging up
in the three countries where the U.S. is most deeply involved in fighting —
Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
U.S. forces totaled just over 18,000 in these three countries at the end of last
December, just before President Obama completed his term, according to the
Pentagon's Defense
Manpower Data Center.
The combined figure was about 26,000 as of the end of September, the most recent
data available from the Pentagon.
https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/12/01/566798632/under-trump-u-s-troops-in-war-zones-are-on-the-rise
December 9: Iraq is 'fully liberated' from
ISIS, its military says
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/09/middleeast/iraq-isis-military-liberated/index.html
-- 2018 --
January 21: Senator who lost her legs in
Iraq calls Trump 'a five-deferment draft dodger'
In a Senate-floor speech Saturday, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., blasted
President Donald Trump as a "five-deferment draft dodger" and accused him of
trying to bait North Korea into a war, putting both the military and the
national security of the United States at risk.
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Senator-who-lost-her-legs-in-Iraq-calls-Trump-a-12513664.php
February 6: Duckworth calls out 'Cadet Bone
Spurs' after Trump's 'treasonous' remark
An Illinois Democrat who was seriously wounded in Iraq derisively referred to
President Donald Trump's draft deferments after Trump called Democrats
"treasonous" for not clapping during his State of the Union speech.
"We don't live in a dictatorship or a monarchy. I swore an oath—in the military
and in the Senate—to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United
States, not to mindlessly cater to the whims of Cadet Bone Spurs and clap when
he demands I clap," Sen. Tammy Duckworth
tweeted Monday evening.
Duckworth, an Army veteran who lost her legs while serving in Iraq, appeared to
be referencing Trump's draft deferments. Trump received five draft deferments
throughout the Vietnam War, and on one occasion, Trump
received a deferment because of bone spurs.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/06/politics/tammy-duckworth-cadet-bone-spurs/index.html
February 8: Trump reportedly jokingly
referred to Iraqi officials as 'the most accomplished group of thieves he'd ever
met'
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-iraqi-most-accomplished-group-of-thieves-ever-met-2018-2
February 19: “For better or worse,” ... Trump sometimes speaks “in shorthand hyperbole”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/19/trumps-sweden-comment-referred-to-rising-white-house-says
February 19: Donald Trump’s Contradictory
Iraq War Position Implodes
Trump was for the war before he was against it.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/02/donald-trump-iraq-war
February 23: Trump administration: Troops
can stay in Iraq, Syria indefinitely
https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2018/02/23/trump-administration-troops-can-stay-in-iraq-syria-indefinitely/
March 4: Trump Slams George W. Bush:
Invading Iraq Was 'Single Worst Decision Ever Made'
'Here we are, like the dummies of the world, because we had bad politicians
running our country for a long time' ...
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/trump-slams-george-bush-invading-iraq-was-worst-decision-ever-made-1.5869272
March 5: President Trump eviscerated George
W. Bush at a campaign event over the weekend, calling his invasion of Iraq "the
single worst decision ever made," and sarcastically referring to the former
president as a "real genius."
https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201803051062253324-trump-bush-iraq-criticism-commentary/
March 6: War zones
still waiting for a visit from Trump
Trump's absence more than a year into this presidency stands in contrast to his
immediate predecessor.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/06/trump-war-zones-afghanistan-iraq-390234
March 14: Trump Attacks Bush Over 2003 Iraq
War
https://www.albawaba.com/news/trump-attacks-bush-over-2003-iraq-war-1097224
March 23: A hawk's hawk: Iraq war champ
Bolton joins Trump team
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/a-hawk-s-hawk-iraq-war-champ-bolton-joins-trump-team-10069690
March 29: Iraq is a reminder: US crimes
against humanity predate Trump
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/29/iraq-war-15-years-later-george-bush-war-crimes
April 2:
Trump Can’t Afford to Forget About Iraq
Having won the war, will the United States end up yet again squandering
the peace?
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/02/trump-cant-afford-to-forget-about-iraq/
April 14: Trump Declares 'Mission
Accomplished' In Syria, And Critics Remember Iraq
http://fortune.com/2018/04/14/trump-syria-mission-accomplished/
May 2: Why This Iraq War Vet Is Speaking Out
Against Trump’s Reckless Foreign Policy
To expand the anti-war movement, Maggie Martin is connecting struggles against
U.S. militarism at home and abroad.
http://inthesetimes.com/article/21116/iraq-war-veteran-speak-out-donald-trump-foreign-policy
May 9: Trump's Iran move reminds some of
run-up to Iraq war
Fifteen years after invading Iraq over weapons of mass destruction and ties to
al Qaeda that both proved non-existent, the United States is again steering
toward a possible confrontation with a Middle East power for suspected work on
nuclear weapons and support for terrorism.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-intelligence/trumps-iran-move-reminds-some-of-run-up-to-iraq-war-idUSKBN1IB0HD
May 10: Is Trump repeating the mistakes of
the Iraq War in Iran?
https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-05-10/trump-repeating-mistakes-iraq-war-iran
May 17: Iran Was the Big Winner in Iraq’s
Elections—And Trump Helped
Iran’s infamous Gen. Qassem Soleimani is in Baghdad helping to organize a new
government, and the one man who might stop him is a mullah with a lot of
American blood on his hands.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/iran-was-the-big-winner-in-iraqs-electionsand-trump-helped
May 21: Iraq Just Got Its Own Version of
Donald Trump
He has been described as an impulsive, narcissistic egoist who lives in the
shadow of his father. He’s also a populist, a political outsider who has hurtled
to political power thanks to a surprise election win. This is not a description
of U.S. President
Donald Trump,
but rather of cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, whose political coalition
recently won Iraq’s parliamentary election.
http://time.com/5285705/iraq-muqtada-al-sadr/
May 24: Iraqi voters undermine Trump’s Iran
strategy
Muqtadar al-Sadr and Hadi al-Amiri, both anti-American, finished first and
second in elections held on the day Trump scrapped the Iran nuclear deal
http://www.atimes.com/article/iraqi-voters-undermine-trumps-iran-strategy/
June 15: US Tells Iraqi Christians Help Is
on Its Way (For Real This Time)
After months of delays, Vice President Pence pushes to streamline aid to the
persecuted.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2018/june/pence-usaid-iraqi-christians-help-persecuted.html
June 30: Iraqi PM orders 'immediate'
execution of all 'terrorists condemned to death'
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/29/middleeast/iraq-executions-intl/
July 2: The Next Phase in Iraq’s Transition
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/reports/2018/07/02/453034/next-phase-iraqs-transition/?src=ilaw
July 2: Iraq builds security fence along border with Syria
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180702-iraq-builds-security-fence-along-border-with-syria/
September 4: Iraqi lawmakers who met this
week for the first time since a May election and are still struggling to form a
new government, decided on Tuesday to put off their next meeting until Sept. 15,
having failed to elect a parliament speaker.
Naming a speaker and two deputies is the first major step towards establishing a
new government, with lawmakers still trying to determine which of competing
blocs had the most seats.
An alliance backing Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi and a populist Shi'ite cleric
has been competing with a rival bloc backed by Abadi's predecessor Nuri al-Maliki
and an Iran-backed Shi'ite armed group.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2018-09-04/iraq-lawmakers-agree-to-delay-next-meeting-and-speakers-election-to-sept-15
September 4: The Middle East’s Tinderbox Is
Heating Up Again
There are danger signs all over the region ...
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/09/syria-iran-iraq-the-middle-east-looks-set-to-explode-again.html
September 11: Iraq reneges on travel ban
deal with Trump, refuses to accept deportees
Iraq was the first
country to earn its way off President Trump’s travel ban last year, after the
administration said it wanted to thank the Muslim nation for agreeing to start
taking back its deportees whom the U.S. was trying to oust.
But evidence has emerged suggesting that either
Iraq has backslid or
the deal was never what the administration said it was in the first place.
Iraq has told U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement that it will not take back any deportees who
don’t volunteer to go back.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/sep/11/iraq-trump-administration-disagree-terms-travel-ba/
September 26:
US Official: We May
Cut Support for Iraq If New Government Seats Pro-Iran Politicians
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2018/09/official-us-may-cut-support-iraq-if-new-government-seats-pro-iran-politicians/151597/
October 19: The Trump administration
intervened to quash a $15 billion deal for Siemens Corp.[a German conglomerate]
to develop power stations in Iraq, instead persuading Baghdad to sign an
agreement with General Electric Co., two administration officials said.
Iraq signed a memorandum of understanding with GE on Monday, after senior U.S.
officials warned Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi that the future of the
U.S.-Iraq relationship would be at risk if his government accepted the deal with
Siemens, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified discussing
private deliberations. The Financial Times reported the U.S. move earlier
Thursday.
The Trump administration's push supports American efforts to curb Iranian
influence in Iraq and the region in the months since President Donald Trump
backed out of a 2015 nuclear deal and prepares to re-impose sanctions on Iran
next month. The U.S. officials said they want to wean Iraq of its dependence on
Iranian natural gas and suspect Iran had spurred Iraqi leaders to pursue the
Siemens deal as a way of undercutting ties with the U.S.
https://dailygazette.com/article/2018/10/19/trump-administration-pushes-iraq-deal-to-ge
November 19: White House discusses possible
Trump visit to troops in Iraq or Afghanistan
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-discusses-possible-trump-visit-to-troops-in-iraq-or-afghanistan/2018/11/19/9f6724d8-ec2a-11e8-96d4-0d23f2aaad09_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.11a1e54bc98b
November 20: Trump Fans Sink Savings Into
‘Iraqi Dinar’ Scam
The president’s true believers are convinced he’s going to make them
millionaires with Iraqi currency.
Trump supporter Hayes Kotseos runs a North Carolina pool-maintenance company,
but she’s got a side bet that she thinks might make her fabulously wealthy: the
Iraqi dinar.
The currency is nearly worthless outside of Iraq, but Kotseos bought millions of
dinars in April, after watching a video of President Trump at a 2017 press
conference. In
the clip, Trump says, with characteristic vagueness, that all currencies
will soon “be on a level playing field.”
In reality, Trump was talking about
trade imbalances with China. But like other Trump supporters who have fallen
into the dinar investment scam, which has existed since at least 2012, Kotseos
interpreted Trump’s rambling statement as proof that the Iraqi dinar would soon
be worth as much or even more than the dollar, making anyone who had been smart
enough to buy in early a millionaire.
Like other investors in the incredibly long-shot dinar scheme, Kotseos hopes
that Trump and the Iraqi government will somehow “revalue” or “RV” the currency,
boosting its current value of less than $0.001 to $3 or $4.
Dinar promoters have claimed that near-mythical event will occur for nearly a
decade. But if it does it would theoretically make a millionaire of anyone with
the foresight to put just a few thousand dollars into dinars.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-fans-sink-savings-into-iraqi-dinar-scam
November 25: Trump to Iraqi PM: How about
that oil?
President Trump twice raised to the Iraqi prime minister the idea of repaying
America for its wars with Iraqi oil, a highly controversial ask that runs afoul
of international norms and logic, according to sources with direct knowledge.
Trump appears to have finally given up on this idea, but until now it
hasn't been revealed that as president he's raised the concept twice with Iraq's
prime minister and brought it up separately in the Situation Room with his
national security team.
https://www.axios.com/trump-to-iraqi-pm-how-about-that-oil-1a31cbfa-f20c-4767-8d18-d518ed9a6543.html
November 26: Trump Twice Floated Plundering
Iraq’s Oil to Iraq’s Prime Minister
The president’s staff had to smack the idea out of him.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/11/trump-iraq-oil
December 27: Trump’s secret trip to Iraq didn’t quite go as planned
He failed to meet with any Iraqi officials and may have also exposed a covert
Navy SEAL team.
https://www.vox.com/2018/12/27/18157575/donald-trump-iraq-secret-trip-us-troops
December 27: Trump to Iraq troops: 'We're no
longer the suckers'
US President Donald Trump has expressed his "eternal gratitude" for the work of
US troops in Iraq, on an unannounced Christmas visit to meet service personnel
at al-Asad air base west of Baghdad.
He spoke about his recent decision to withdraw US troops from Syria, saying
"America shouldn't be doing the fighting for every nation on earth".
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-46689505/trump-to-iraq-troops-we-re-no-longer-the-suckers
-- 2019 --
February 4: Iraq president says Trump did
not ask permission to leave troops to 'watch Iran'
https://thehill.com/policy/international/428297-iraq-president-says-trump-did-not-ask-permission-to-leave-troops-to
February 5: President Donald Trump's
suggestion that the US would use a base in Iraq as a means to "watch" Iran
evoked the scorn of Iraqi lawmakers on Monday and seemed to cause confusion
among Pentagon officials and analysts, while the State Department told CNN that
the US mission in Iraq remains unchanged.
"One of the reasons I want to keep it is because I want to be looking a little
bit at Iran because Iran is a real problem," Trump told CBS's "Face the Nation"
Sunday, adding that he wouldn't use the US military outpost to strike Iran, but
to "watch" it.
Trump's comments were strongly rejected by current and former Iraqi political
leaders.
Iraqi President Bahram Salih said that the US had not asked permission to have
forces on the ground "watch Iran," noting that "the US presence in Iraq is a
part of an agreement between the two countries with a specific task which is to
combat terrorism."
"Don't overburden Iraq with your own issues," Salih said during a forum in
Baghdad.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/04/politics/trump-iraq-iran-comments/index.html
February 17:
All This Should Remind You of the Run-Up to the Iraq War
The march to war against Iran is echoing the drumbeats of America's last
major Middle Eastern invasion.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/02/17/all-this-should-remind-you-of-the-run-up-to-the-iraq-war/
February 21: Trump Treats Iraq Like a
Conquered Province
He recognizes the folly of staying in Syria and Afghanistan forever. So why is
Baghdad the exception?
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/trump-treats-iraq-like-a-conquered-province/
-- 2020 --
Webpage visitor counts provided
by
copyr 2018 trump-news-history.com, Minneapolis, MN