Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stated he agrees with President Obama’s delay of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, although he added, “He’s cutting it down to 5,000, maybe he’ll leave 10,000, not that I recommend this at all, but I think you have no choice” and that the US isn’t doing what it’s “supposed to be doing” with Israel on Thursday’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” on the Fox News Channel.
Trump stated of President Obama’s decision to delay the scheduled withdrawal from Afghanistan, “Well, I agree with that announcement because, frankly, if you look at what happened with Iraq, we should have never been in Iraq in the first place, but when we took the troops out, that was the end of that, and now Iran is taking over Iraq as sure as you’re sitting there. So, I think that probably they have to do that. He’s cutting it down to 5,000, maybe he’ll leave 10,000, not that I recommend this at all, but I think you have no choice, at this moment, because you already see the insurgents, they are already going in there, because they all think we’re leaving, probably you have to leave it. It’s a shame to have to leave it. You know, at what point do we leave? At what point do we get out? But you probably have to leave, otherwise the same thing is probably going to happen as happened in Iraq.”
Trump also commented on Israel, and the suggestion by US officials that Israel was engaging in “excessive force,” saying, “Well, Israel’s being hit from all sides, and, you know, if you look at this new deal, this horrible, one of the worst contracts ever negotiated, the Iran nuclear deal, I mean, how can Israel be happy with the united states? And, in the meantime, they’re getting hit on in so many different ways. So, I don’t blame him for being unhappy with our president, or the United States. We’re not taking care of them. We’re not doing what we’re supposed to be doing. And, you know, excessive force. What’s excessive force? They’re being hit from all sides, and they’re being hit very unfairly, and they have to do what they have to do.”
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