Donald Trump: Iraq Oil Should Be Seized From ISIS By U.S. Troops In Iraq

Donald Trump says that Iraq’s oil should be seized by the United States before the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant manages to get their hands on everything of value in the war-torn middle eastern country.

In a related report by The Inquisitr, oils prices have been rising due to the Iraq crisis partially because Iraq’s oil production capacity growth has been increasing faster than all the other OPEC nations, and was previously estimated to be up to 4.6 million barrels of oil per day by 2019. But even though the United States spent trillions of dollars on the Iraq war, it was Chinese companies that reaped the benefits by underbidding American companies for the oil contracts.

These facts have had Donald Trump fuming since last year, when he complained that both George W Bush and Barack Obama had messed up big time when it came to Iraq’s oil:

“We lost out. The Chinese had nothing to do with the war, but from an economic standpoint they are benefiting from it, and our Fifth Fleet and air forces are helping to assure their supply. I’m not knocking China; I’m knocking our leadership. We spend $1.5 trillion, we lose thousands of lives, we destroy a country, but China is in there taking out all the oil, and we’re getting nothing. I’ve said it a thousand times… we shouldn’t have been there, but if we’re there, take the oil… Well guess what? China is taking the oil but they didn’t have to fight. … To me, that’s a scandal that is unbelievable.”

To give you an idea how bad it is, Exxon was barred from an Iraqi oil auction last year, and even though Iraq’s oil production was 3.3 million barrels per day, the United States received only 300,000 barrels while the Chinese received millions. This relatively puny amount of barrels accounts for approximately four percent of U.S. oil imports, although it should be noted that the United States is now the biggest oil exporter due to fracking.

With the ISIS in Iraq taking over various key installations, even including one of Iraq’s old chemical weapons plants, Donald Trump is saying that the United States should not send U.S. troops into Iraq to save the country, but only to save the oil:

“I’ve been predicting for a long time that somebody, most likely the bad guys, are going to get the oil. And if you look at this morning, they [ISIS] veered off course, and instead of going into Baghdad initially — they’ll get that later, don’t worry about it — they decided to do the smart thing. So now they have the oil, and they have lots of land, and they have lots of support, and they have lots of money, and they have our equipment, and we’re a very stupidly run country. But if we were going to be there, take the oil before Iran gets it or before the other militants get it. What happened now is the worst nightmare.”

After all, the goal of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is re-establish the caliphate. In order to pull that off, ISIS needs the petroleum refinery in Baij. Even in Syria, ISIS controls the oil production in several cities and they are selling the oil into local markets and to other buyers in order to finance their fight in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere.

Do you agree with Donald Trump that the United States should seize Iraq’s oil?