Donald Trump's plan to fight back at the Islamic State (ISIS) by seizing Iraqi oil fields by force wouldn't work, retiring Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said Wednesday, because there are limits to the use of military power.
Instead, it would be better to achieve a "sustainable outcome" through the use of a combination of military, political and economic methods, Odierno told reporters, according to
The Wall Street Journal.
Last month, Trump said that if he became president he would "attack those oil sites that are controlled and owned — they are controlled by ISIS,"
reports CNN.
Further, Trump said last month that he will "bomb the hell out of those oil fields" and then have big oil companies rebuild them. But that wouldn't include the need for troops, he said, "because you won't need 'em by the time I'm done."
Odierno rejected that idea, joining other military officials who have rejected Trump's call. The retiring general did say that he recommends embedded trainers to help local forces fight back against ISIS, but that it should not be up to the United States alone to solve the problem.
"I believe that if we find in the next several months we are not making the progress that we have, then we should probably absolutely consider embedding some soldiers to see if that would make a difference," he told reporters, joining an opinion shared by many other American military officers.
That doesn't mean he's calling for U.S. boots on the ground, he said, and pointed out that sending troops into Syria would be more dangerous. Currently, the 3,500 American troops in Iraq are not allowed to move beyond bases and stations there, the Journal reports.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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