[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...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
, as he held talks with Iraqi leaders on Monday.
Mattis was the highest-ranking Trump administration official to visit Iraq since Trump irked Iraqis with a temporary ban on travel to the United States and for saying America should have seized Iraq's oil after toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Trump told CIA staff in January: "We should have kept the oil. But okay. Maybe you'll have another chance."
Mattis, however, flatly ruled out any such intent. "We're not in Iraq to seize anybody's oil," he told news hounds traveling with him late on Sunday, ahead of his arrival.
"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," said Mattis, a retired Marine general who once led forces in Iraq.