Are Older Men in Thailand Trading Love for Financial Ruin

[webfact]

Trump's defense chief, in Iraq, says: We're not here for your oil

By Phil StewartREUTERS

 

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis speaks at the opening of the 53rd Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder

 

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military is not in Iraq "to seize anybody's oil", Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said, distancing himself from remarks by President Donald Trump before arriving on an unannounced visit to Baghdad on Monday.

 

Mattis, on his first trip to Iraq as Pentagon chief, is hoping to get a first-hand assessment of the war effort as U.S.-backed Iraqi forces launch a new push to evict Islamic State militants from their remaining stronghold in the city of Mosul.

 

But he is likely to face questions about Trump's remarks and actions, including a temporary ban on travel to the United States and for saying America should have seized Iraq's oil after toppling leader Saddam Hussein in 2003.

 

Trump told CIA staff in a January speech: "We should have kept the oil. But okay. Maybe you'll have another chance."

 

Asked whether a threat to seize Iraq's oil was on the agenda for his Iraq visit, Mattis flatly ruled out any such intent.

 

"I think all of us here in this room, all of us in America have generally paid for our gas and oil all along and I'm sure that we will continue to do so in the future," Mattis told a small group of reporters travelling with him as he discussed his objectives for the trip.

"We're not in Iraq to seize anybody's oil."

 

Mattis remarks are only the latest example of his policy differences with Trump. Trump has acknowledged that Mattis did not agree with him about the usefulness of torture as an interrogation tactic but, in a sign of Mattis' influence, said he would defer the matter to his defense secretary.

 

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Alison Williams)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-02-20

[ilostmypassword]

Trump has actually said the USA should have taken the oil and maybe still will several times. Including during his speech to the CIA.

[heybruce]

Idiotic statements like "We should have kept the oil. But okay. Maybe you'll have another chance." are putting US military people in Iraq at risk and pushing Iraq away from the US and towards Iran.  But I assume this is all part of the "fine tuned machine" of the Trump administration.

[Credo]

Just how do you 'take their oil'?   Where do we put it?   Perhaps we should take their air as well.

[manhood]

Mhhhh i think the world is giving to much attention to all of the stupid things Trump is posting every day!

Same as the press conferences: why press still go there. Stay away and ignore all the bullshit and you will see: he fall in love with the press....

But every country earns the president they have voted for!

Edited February 21, 2017 by Scott

[boomerangutang]

This is why world leaders are laughing at Trump as the dangerous clown he is.

 

As long as Trump sits in the Oval Office, these sorts of shenanigans will be happening in the US and overseas.  Trump shoots his mouth off like a immature uneducated dunce (in order to rile up his core supporters in the US) and then US representatives like Mattis, Pence, Tillerson and others have to spend hundreds of hours telling foreign leaders that Trump didn't real mean those words he said.

 

What a ridiculous and dangerous way to run a government.  Trump should resign and go back to what he's familiar with:  bankrupting companies while withholding payments to workers.

[boomerangutang]

8 hours ago, Credo said:

Just how do you 'take their oil'?   Where do we put it?   Perhaps we should take their air as well.

Or, when Trump needs one or two younger wives, he can take some of their women as well.

[boomerangutang]

                    Trump is to words and sentences what crazed woman is to expletives when watching her child fall into the tiger pit at the zoo.

 

               Do you remember when you were a little kid, and were starting to have a fit about something that pissed you off?    Most kids had a parent around who would try to hush the kid down by saying something like, "go sit in the corner until you can calm down." 
 

             Trump never had that.  His parents never tried to teach him how to be calm, how to be decent to other kids, or how to be gentlemanly.  It's like my Thai neighbors who let their dogs bark anytime day or night.  They never even attempt to discipline their dogs.   The result is:  barking dogs or, in the case of Trump, a man who shoots his mouth off while his brain is on stand-by.

 

              He did it during the campaign when he 'dog whistled'; "Maybe the Second Amendment people can deal her (HRC)."

[klauskunkel]

Quote

Trump's defense chief, in Iraq, says: We're not here for your oil,

...we're here for your weather!

[Jonmarleesco]

You mean Cheney didn't get it all?

[FritsSikkink]

10 hours ago, Credo said:

Just how do you 'take their oil'?   Where do we put it?   Perhaps we should take their air as well.

In an oiltanker

[Srikcir]

10 hours ago, Credo said:

Just how do you 'take their oil'?   Where do we put it?   Perhaps we should take their air as well.

By conquering the Iraqi nation and exercising US sovereignty over its land and people. Ownership of Iraq's natural resources in place is merely assumed. No need to put it anywhere.

 

As the saying goes: To the victor goes the spoils of war.  Likely Trump saw a WWII movie about Germany conquests for natural resources and how it improved the Germany economy. And/or a similar movie about the USSR economic expansion.

[pegman]

3 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

Or, when Trump needs one or two younger wives, he can take some of their women as well.

That NYC escort agency worked fine for the last one.

[Scott]

Please stay on topic.  

[Thaidream]

Trump is a walking time bomb- he keeps saying things that are either untrue; unwise or just plain stupid. Then his minions take to the road to try and inform those he irritated that he didn't really mean it.  HIs latest blunder indicated Sweden had a recent terror attack. The only fake news is coming from Trump because he cannot get his facts correct and operates 'off the cuff'. He has already pissed off the intelligence community by denigrating their service to the country; members of his own party such as John McCain who really is an American hero and suffered greatly during the Vietnam War; most of Europe and also Australia.

If this continues, I expect an attempt will be made to remove him from office using the 25th Amendment which will of course set off a constitutional crisis.

If Trump is to salvage his Presidency he needs to shut the hell up; stop using Twitter; and listen to key players in both parties as well as Americans with real expertise in all areas of both domestic and foreign policy. He needs to get rid of his current chief of staff Priebus and  Bannon who has an agenda that borders on being facist

[elgordo38]

On 2/20/2017 at 2:58 PM, webfact said:

Trump told CIA staff in a January speech: "We should have kept the oil. But okay. Maybe you'll have another chance."

Really?????????????????

[elgordo38]

1 hour ago, Thaidream said:

Trump is a walking time bomb- he keeps saying things that are either untrue; unwise or just plain stupid. Then his minions take to the road to try and inform those he irritated that he didn't really mean it.  HIs latest blunder indicated Sweden had a recent terror attack. The only fake news is coming from Trump because he cannot get his facts correct and operates 'off the cuff'. He has already pissed off the intelligence community by denigrating their service to the country; members of his own party such as John McCain who really is an American hero and suffered greatly during the Vietnam War; most of Europe and also Australia.

If this continues, I expect an attempt will be made to remove him from office using the 25th Amendment which will of course set off a constitutional crisis.

If Trump is to salvage his Presidency he needs to shut the hell up; stop using Twitter; and listen to key players in both parties as well as Americans with real expertise in all areas of both domestic and foreign policy. He needs to get rid of his current chief of staff Priebus and  Bannon who has an agenda that borders on being facist

Well said you have a lot of likes now I can understand why. I added mine as well. I got tired pushing the like button on this topic. 

[Beats56]

The US.doesn't need the oil

 They are producing enough now and Canada is sending oil to them. Maybe back in the day ok but not now. With the advent of electric cars that are about to explode on the markets and solar energy. Only the petrochemical companies will need it for plastics etc.

[Srikcir]

2 hours ago, Thaidream said:

using the 25th Amendment which will of course set off a constitutional crisis.

Why?

I could see a political and/or a national security crisis using the 25th Amendment. But applying the articles of the constitution is the ultimate process of resolving conflicts within the American democratic system of government. I'd call that SOP - Standard Operating Procedure.

[boomerangutang]

7 hours ago, Thaidream said:

Trump is a walking time bomb- he keeps saying things that are either untrue; unwise or just plain stupid. Then his minions take to the road to try and inform those he irritated that he didn't really mean it.  HIs latest blunder indicated Sweden had a recent terror attack. The only fake news is coming from Trump because he cannot get his facts correct and operates 'off the cuff'. He has already pissed off the intelligence community by denigrating their service to the country; members of his own party such as John McCain who really is an American hero and suffered greatly during the Vietnam War; most of Europe and also Australia.

If this continues, I expect an attempt will be made to remove him from office using the 25th Amendment which will of course set off a constitutional crisis.

If Trump is to salvage his Presidency he needs to shut the hell up; stop using Twitter; and listen to key players in both parties as well as Americans with real expertise in all areas of both domestic and foreign policy. He needs to get rid of his current chief of staff Priebus and  Bannon who has an agenda that borders on being facist

The missive above is my vote for "Best Post of the Day."

[cncltd1973]

13 hours ago, Srikcir said:

By conquering the Iraqi nation and exercising US sovereignty over its land and people. Ownership of Iraq's natural resources in place is merely assumed. No need to put it anywhere.

 

As the saying goes: To the victor goes the spoils of war.  Likely Trump saw a WWII movie about Germany conquests for natural resources and how it improved the Germany economy. And/or a similar movie about the USSR economic expansion.

I'm confused why Trump would hire a secretary that contradicts his  mandate to get Iraq's oil. Unless Trump only said it to get his base riled up, but knew it wouldn't be allowed on the international stage, so no use pursuing it.