Felicia Schwartz and Paul Sonne
October 25, 2016
Trump at Odds With Pentagon in Calling Mosul a ‘Total Disaster’
Donald Trump doubled down on his critique on an American-backed Iraqi military offensive to retake Mosul from Islamic State, calling the effort “a total disaster” and saying that American leaders are “stupid.”
Mr. Trump’s assessment of the Mosul operation is at odds with that of U.S. military officials and the White House. A week into the effort to retake Iraq’s second-largest city and Islamic State’s last major stronghold in Iraq, U.S. officials say that the Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces are making inroads, encircling major towns as they push toward Mosul in a campaign that is expected to take months.
“The attack on Mosul is turning out to be a total disaster,” Mr. Trump tweeted late Sunday. “We gave them months of notice. U.S. is looking so dumb. VOTE TRUMP and WIN AGAIN!”
Mr. Trump continued on that theme Monday. “Now we’re bogged down in Mosul, the enemy is much tougher than they thought,” Mr. Trump said at a rally in St. Augustine, Fla. “It’s a horrible, horrible situation.”
In his remarks at the rally Monday and the earlier tweet, Mr. Trump repeated his criticism that the U.S. gave Islamic State militants in the key city “months of notice.” He told the Florida rally that America’s current leadership “is stupid, these are stupid people.”
The Pentagon has said the campaign to retake Mosul — which began a week ago and is expected to last weeks or months — is proceeding on schedule and as planned.
Already, U.S.-backed Iraqi and Kurdish troops have retaken some 800 square kilometers of territory from Islamic State in the course of the week-long offensive, according to U.S. military officials.
U.S. Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a spokesman for the Pentagon, said Monday that U.S.-backed forces are facing resistance from Islamic State that will likely grow heavier as they move into to the city.
“We continue to see progress in the efforts to advance on Mosul,” Capt. Davis said.
In addition to dozens of villages, U.S.-backed forces have taken control of Bartella to Mosul’s east and Bashiqa to Mosul’s northeast, key gateways to the city, and are now working on clearing the area. The forces have isolated Tal Kayf to Mosul’s north and will soon begin the process to retake the town, Capt. Davis said.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest, asked about Mr. Trump’s comments, said the least U.S. troops should expect from potential commanders in chief is “unconditional and unwavering support.” He added: “It’s far too early to reach that kind of conclusion” that the mission has been a failure, and that President Barack Obama has confidence the battle will be successful.
Mr. Trump’s opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, called the Republican nominee’s assessment of the effort to retake Mosul “dangerous.”
“He’s basically declaring defeat before the battle has even started,” she said in Manchester, N.H.
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