With a single line, President Trump fanned the flames of a push in Iraq to expel U.S. forces, just as he declared he wanted to keep troops in the country.
“We spent a fortune on building this incredible base. We might as well keep it,” Trump said in a CBS interview on Feb. 3, referring to the Ain al-Asad military base in Iraq’s western desert. “And 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.”
The Pentagon has described the mission for the several thousand U.S. troops stationed at the Iraqi base as helping Iraq fight ISIS.
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