Trump Says He Wants to ‘Watch’ Iran and May Invade Venezuela

Last updated on February 4th, 2019 at 01:45 pm

In a CBS interview broadcast Sunday Donald Trump said that he plans to keep U.S. troops in Iraq to ‘watch’ Iran, and he may use military force in Venezuela.

Concerning Iran, Trump “All I want to do is be able to watch.” Then he added:

“We have an unbelievable and expensive military base built in Iraq. It’s perfectly situated for looking at all over different parts of the troubled Middle East rather than pulling up.”

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“And this is what a lot of people don’t understand. We’re going to keep watching and we’re going to keep seeing and if there’s trouble, if somebody is looking to do nuclear weapons or other things, we’re going to know it before they do.”

Trump has criticized U.S. troops being in Iraq for many years. Today he said invading Iraq was “one of the greatest mistakes that we’ve ever made.”

During the interview Trump also said sending U.S. troops to crisis-torn Venezuela is an “option.”

“Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan  specifically asked Trump about military intervention in the South American country. He said he has no current plans to send the military to Venezuela, “but certainly it’s something that’s on the table – it’s an option.”

He also also said Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro requested a meeting “a number of months ago” and he turned it down.

“I decided at the time, ‘no’ because so many really horrible things have been happening in Venezuela when you look at that country,” he said.

“That was the wealthiest country of all in that part of the world which is a very important part of the world. And now you look at the poverty and you look at the anguish and you look at the crime and you look at all of the things happening,” he added.

“So, I think the process is playing out – very, very big tremendous protests.”

Last month several countries, including the United States, recognized Juan Guaido, the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, as the nation’s interim president. But the crisis has not yet been resolved.

In today’s interview Donald Trump is using bluster to try to achieve foreign policy goals. But no matter what threats he makes, or how tough he tries to appear in TV interviews, it won’t change anything.

Donald Trump has no idea what he is doing in the arena of foreign policy, and the country would be better off if he just kept his mouth shut and let the experts decide what needs to be done to achieve our foreign policy goals.



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