David Smith – The Guardian
Nearly two years into his presidency, Donald Trump has made his first visit to a war zone with a surprise trip to Iraq.
The unannounced visit a day after Christmas came after the US president faced growing pressure to spend time with troops on the frontline.
It also comes a week after the president stunned his national security advisers by announcing that he would withdraw US troops from neighbouring Syria, where they have been fighting Islamic State militants, prompting the resignation of the defense secretary, Jim Mattis.
Trump made the secret 11-hour flight on Air Force One with lights off and window shades drawn plus military jet escorts. He was accompanied by the first lady, Melania Trump, and national security adviser, John Bolton.
Asked if he had concerns about making the trip, the president told reporters: “I had concerns about the institution of the presidency. Not for myself personally. I had concerns for the first lady, I will tell you. But if you would have seen what we had to go through in the darkened plane with all windows closed with no light anywhere. Pitch black. I’ve been on many airplanes. All types and shapes and sizes.
“So did I have a concern? Yes, I had a concern.”
The president spent around three and a half hours at al-Asad airbase in western Iraq but did not visit Baghdad. He met US military leaders and addressed hundreds of troops. A scheduled in-person meeting with Iraq’s prime minister, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, was cancelled.
Trump tweeted: “@FLOTUS Melania and I were honored to visit our incredible troops at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.!”
The tweet was accompanied by an 83-second video clip that showed Trump, wearing suit and tie, giving a thumbs-up as he was flanked by Melania and soldiers in helmets and combat fatigues. The video showed him shaking hands, signing autographs and posing for photos, then wearing a green bomber jacket as he addressed troops in a hangar.
In a speech lasting roughly 20 minutes, Trump reportedly said he has “no plans at all” to remove American troops from the country. But he defended his decision to withdraw all 2,000 US troops from Syria.
“We’re no longer the suckers, folks,” he told the troops. “We’re respected again as a nation.”
Trump continued: “I made it clear from the beginning that our mission in Syria was to strip Isis of its military strongholds. Eight years ago, we went there for three months and we never left. Now, we’re doing it right and we’re going to finish it off.”
Though Isis has lost a significant amount of territory in Iraq and Syria, it is still seen as a threat.
Trump argued that the US presence was never intended to be “open-ended” and that Turkey had agreed to eliminate remnants of the Isis terror group still remaining in the country.
Earlier, Trump took questions from reporters. He described how he gave “the generals” multiple six-month “extensions” to get out of Syria. Trump said of the generals: “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.”
The US cannot continue to be the policeman of the world, he added. “In Syria, [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan 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.
“We are spread out all over the world. We are in countries most people haven’t even heard about. Frankly, it’s ridiculous.”
Trump had planned to spend Christmas at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida, but stayed behind in Washington due to a partial government shutdown prompted by a stalemate between him and congressional Democrats over his demand for a wall along the US-Mexico border.
Fifteen years after the 2003 invasion, the US still has more than 5,000 troops in Iraq supporting the government as it continues the fight against remaining pockets of resistance by the Islamic State group.
Trump, who speaks often about his support for the US military, had faced criticism for not yet visiting US troops stationed in harm’s way as he approaches the halfway point in his presidency. He told the Associated Press in an interview in October that he “will do that at some point, but I don’t think it’s overly necessary”.
Trump’s visit marks the sixth time that a US president has visited Iraq.
George W Bush went to Iraq in November 2003, about eight months after that conflict began. Due to security concerns, Bush waited until 2006 to make his first visit to Afghanistan. Barack Obama visited Iraq in April 2009 as part of an overseas tour and went to Afghanistan in 2010.
The vice-president, Mike Pence, visited Afghanistan in December 2017, soon after Trump outlined a strategy to break the impasse in America’s longest war.
Asked why he wanted to come to Iraq, Trump told reporters: “It’s a place I have been talking about for many years, many, many years. I was talking about it as a civilian. ”