Trump to pull US cop from world beat

Donald Trump has used his first with US troops in a conflict zone to declare an end to America’s role as the global ‘policeman’.

‘It’s not fair when the burden is all on us’: Melania and Donald Trump greet the troops at Al-Asad Air Base, Iraq, yesterday. Picture: AP

Donald Trump used a lightning visit to Iraq — his first with US troops in a conflict zone since being elected — to defend the American withdrawal from Syria and to declare an end to his nation’s role as the global ­“policeman.”

The US President landed at 7.16pm on Wednesday (3.16am yesterday, AEDT) at Al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq, accompanied by his wife, Melania, following what he described as a stressful, ­secrecy-shrouded flight on a “pitch black” Air Force One.

Mr Trump spoke to a group of about 100 mostly special forces personnel and separately with military leaders before leaving a few hours later. A planned meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi was scrapped and replac­ed by a phone call.

During the call, Mr Trump invite­d Mr Abdel Mahdi to visit Washington and he accepted, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

White House video showed a smiling Mr Trump shaking hands with camouflage-clad personnel, signing autographs and posing for photos at the base in Iraq.

Morale-boosting presidential visits to US troops in war zones have been a longstanding tradition in the years following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Mr Trump has taken considerable criticism for declining to visit in the first two years of his presidency, but speculation had been mounting that he would finally make the gesture following his controversial plan to slash troop levels in Afghanistan and his order to withdraw entirely from Syria.

At the Iraqi military base, Mr Trump sought to defend his “America first” policy of pulling back from multinational alliances, including what to many Americans seem like the endless wars of the Middle East.

“It’s not fair when the burden is all on us,” he said. “We don’t want to be taken advantage of any more by countries that use us and use our incredible military to protect them. They don’t pay for it and they’re going to have to.

“We are spread out all over the world. We are in countries most people haven’t even heard about. Frankly, it’s ridiculous.”

Mr Trump said he had overruled generals asking to extend the Syria deployment, where about 2000 US forces, joined by other foreign troops, assist local fighters battling Islamic State.

“You can’t have any more time. You’ve had enough time,” he said he told the top brass.

The drawdowns — and abrupt way that they were announced — helped lead to the resignation of Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, who has been one of the administration’s heavyweights.

In an unusually forcefully worded resignation letter, Mr Mattis appeared to chide Mr Trump when he stressed his own “strongly held” views on “treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign ­actors and strategic competitors”.

Mr Trump has also taken critic­ism from France and other foreign partners as well as senior figures in his Republican party.

However, the President has made disentangling the US from its wars a priority since his 2016 election and he said in Iraq that the US would no longer be treated as “suckers”, CNN reported. ISIS, which once controlled swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria, has been driven mostly into hiding.

Yesterday, Mr Trump said “We’ve knocked them out”, althou­gh he appeared to hedge his bets — following criticism that his victory declaration is premature — when he added that Iraq might be used as a future base “if we wanted to do something in Syria”.

However, politicians from both sides of Iraq’s political divide used his visit to call on parliament to vote to expel the 5000 US troops stationed there as part of the coal­ition against Islamic State. They decried his visit as arrogant and a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.

Foreign influence has become a hot-button issue in a year that saw supporters of populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr win the largest share of votes in May elections. Al-Sadr has called for curbing US and Iran­ian involvement in Iraqi affairs.

Meanwhile, highlighting the military and financial roles he said Turkey and Saudi Arabia had agreed to play in Syria, Mr Trump said: “We may go back and help.”

In Afghanistan, he wants to withdraw about half of the 14,000 soldiers locked in a war against Taliban guerillas that has long resembled a stalemate.

The Iraq trip will go some way to ending criticism over his failure to meet soldiers on the ground, even as he touts his support for the military at rallies. It provides a distractio­n from a rising tide of domesti­c problems, including the gov­ern­ment shutdown caused by his row with congress over funding for a US-Mexico border wall.

AFP, AP