Before James Mattis arrived in Iraq for the first time as defense secretary on Monday, he made it clear that he was not in the country to take its oil, a plan floated by President Donald Trump during the campaign.
“I think all of us here in this room — all of us in America — have generally paid for our gas and oil all along, and I am sure we will continue to do so in the future,” Mattis told reporters Sunday night. “We’re not in Iraq to seize anybody’s oil.”
The Pentagon chief’s comments diverge from Trump’s proposals on the campaign trail. Trump constantly claimed that the U.S. should have seized oil from Iraq in order to keep it out of the Islamic State’s hands.
“If we had taken the oil, you wouldn’t have ISIS. ISIS formed with the power and wealth of that oil,” he said in September.
“It used to be, ‘To the victor belong the spoils.’ Now, there was no victor there, believe me, there was no victor. But I always said, take the oil,” Trump added. “One of the benefits we would have had, if we took the oil, ISIS would not have been able to take oil and use that oil to fuel themselves.”
Trump made similar comments after his inauguration, suggesting that he would look into seizing Iraq’s oil as president.
“We should have kept the oil. Maybe we’ll have another chance,” he said.
