Military Analysts Pan Trump’s Call to ‘Bomb the Hell Out Of’ Iraqi Oilfields

Warn Bombing Iraq's Infrastructure Will Hurt Iraq More Than ISIS

While presidential candidate Donald Trump has spent most of his early campaign railing against Mexicans, his interview with CNN this week provided some of the first glimpses of his foreign policy intentions when he vowed to “bomb the hell out of” oilfields in Iraq to defeat ISIS.

Trump insisted targeting Iraqi oil fields would defeat ISIS in short order, and that “I wouldn’t send many troops because you won’t need them by the time I’m finished.” Though ISIS has seized some oil fields in Iraq, the Iraqi and Kurdish governments control the lion’s share, and are producing large amounts of oil.

Military analysts were quick to caution against Trump’s plan, saying that in destroying the economic infrastructure of Iraq “you’re not really doing much to hurt ISIS,” but that it would do significant harm to Iraq in the long run.

Retired Lt. Col. Rick Francona cautioned against Trump’s assurances that he’d just send in Exxon to fix everything up afterwards, saying rebuilding heavily bombed out infrastructure is “easier said than done,” and a problem the US has run into in the past.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.