WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has said that he wants to bring back American forces engaged in the endless wars, emphasising that it was one of the promises he made during his 2016 Presidential campaign.
“We want to bring our troops back home. It’s been many many years. It’s been decades, in many cases. We want to bring our troops back home. I got elected on that. If you go back and look at our speeches, I would say we want to bring our troops back home from these endless wars,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.
Trump’s comments came a day after the White House announced the withdrawal of the US troops from Syria’s northern border. The US’ move effectively abandons the Kurds, who were America’s main ally in the fight against the ISIS.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump had promised to bring back the American troops from Syria and Afghanistan. During his interaction with the reporters, Trump said with the endless wars now the US forces were doing policing and not fighting.
“The US is like a police force over there, he said in reference to Syria. We’re policing. We’re not fighting; we’re policing. We’re not a police force. We’re the greatest military force ever assembled because of what I’ve done over the last three years with USD2.5 trillion, he said. But we’re not going to be there longer, he said.
The withdrawal from key positions along Syria’s northern border came after the White House said it would step aside to allow for a Turkish operation President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned could come at any moment. “We’re going to be watching Turkey and we hope that them and all of the other countries — or some of the other countries, including the European Union — goes in and does whatever they’re supposed to do with these captured ISIS fighters and families, he said.
I have told Turkey that if they do anything outside of what we would think is humane …. they could suffer the wrath of an extremely decimated economy, he said issuing a warning to Turkey. “I’ve done it once. I did it with Pastor Brunson. You remember the Pastor Brunson? And they wouldn’t give Pastor Brunson back, and they ended up giving Pastor Brunson back pretty quickly. Their currency fell at record levels and lots of other things happened. It was good. I have a very good relationship with President Erdogan. I want to see it happen, he said.
Pastor Andrew Brunson, an American who ran a protestant church in the Aegean city of Izmir, was detained for terrorism charges. He was later released following the pressure from the US. Trump said there was a need for other countries to do their part in terms of fighting wars. Asserting that the US has now defeated ISIS, Trump said: When we were at 96 and 95 and 97 percent, I sort of said let the other countries in the area finish it off”.
Trump alleged that the European countries have not helped the US in fighting wars. “These countries are rich, in most cases. They’re powerful. They’ve got armies. They can do the work. But we’re not bringing 50-, 60-, 70-, or even 10,000 people to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, he said. “We’re not going to pay them for the next 50 years, or paying to take care of them for the next 50 years. So we told Europe — we did a great service to the world. And we did a great service to Europe in particular, were so many of these fighters came from, he added.
The US, he said, is thrilled at his decision of withdrawing the American forces. “I campaigned on the fact that I was going to bring our soldiers home, and bring them home as rapidly as possible, he said. PTI
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