- Sputnik International
Asia
Find top stories and features from Asia and the Pacific region. Keep updated on major political stories and analyses from Asia and the Pacific. All you want to know about China, Japan, North and South Korea, India and Pakistan, Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Trump Fails on ‘Vision’ to Reduce Foreign Military Deployments

© AP Photo / Alex BrandonPresident Donald Trump speaks during a joint news conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Monday, Aug. 28, 2017, in the East Room of the White House in Washington.
President Donald Trump speaks during a joint news conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Monday, Aug. 28, 2017, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. - Sputnik International
Subscribe
The Pentagon’s latest report on force levels in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan shows a major surge in the number of troops under US President Donald Trump as compared with the final months of his predecessor President Barack Obama.

According to the Defense Manpower Data Center, almost 30,000 US service members are deployed in the three countries. The report, which provides data current as of September 30, states there are 8,892 personnel in Iraq, 15,298 in Afghanistan, and 1,720 in Syria.

In this photo taken on August 5, 2011, US troops from the Charlie Company, 2-87 Infantry, 3d Brigade Combat Team under Afghanistan's International Security Assistance Force patrols Kandalay village following Taliban attacks on a joint US and Afghan National Army checkpoint protecting the western area of Kandalay village. - Sputnik International
Pentagon: US General ‘Misspoke’ When Reporting 4,000 US Troops Deployed in Syria

By comparison, under Obama, there were 7,538 total DoD personnel in Iraq, 12,966 in Afghanistan, and 279 in Syria. The most recent Defense Manpower Data Center report completed during the Obama administration from December 2016 shows that 275,850 soldiers were stationed overseas. Under Trump's watch, this figure has ticked up to 290,984 foreign deployments.

In December of last year, Trump claimed, "we don't want to have a depleted military because we're all over the place fighting in areas that we shouldn't be fighting in. It's not going to be depleted any longer."

US President Donald Trump campaigned on reducing America's footprint abroad to focus on nation building in the US, but the data show this promise has not been kept.

​And in 2013, Trump blasted Obama over Twitter stating that Obama wanted to "protect al-Qaeda Islamists" in Syria. "Syria is NOT our problem," Trump said.

Further, Trump used voting histories on the Iraq War to discredit political opponents. While in power, though, Trump has only intensified the US military effort abroad. "Hillary voted for the Iraq war, not me!" Trump tweeted July 2016.

In 2015, Trump tweeted, "Dummy political pundit @krauthammer constantly pressed the crazy war in Iraq. Many lives lost and trillions of dollars wasted. U.S. got NOTHING!"

US Army Spc. Newton Carlicci travels dismounted while on his way back to his outpost from the village of Paspajak, Charkh District, Logar province, Afghanistan. File photo - Sputnik International
The Never-Ending War: US Misrepresents Troop Numbers in Afghanistan by Thousands

Two weeks later, Trump raked The Weekly Standard's Charles Krauthammer over the coals once again, tweeting, "Has @krauthammer ever apologized for being so totally wrong on Iraq? I called it right in every way-Make America Great Again!"

In September 2015, Trump focused his crosshairs on Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio.
"Senator Marco ‘amnesty' Rubio, who has the worst voting record in the Senate, just hit me on national security-but I said I don't go into Iraq. VISION."

​You heard it from Trump yourself: VISION.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала