Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, a key backer of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, said the U.S. “would not be dealing with ISIS today” if it had secured the oil in Iraq during the war.
Mr. Giuliani said the oil is what makes the jihadist Islamic State “so rich,” though he tried to reel in the idea that U.S. forces would be plundering natural resources from Iraq.
Mr. Trump seemed to suggest as much at a commander-in-chief forum last week, saying the U.S. shouldn’t have been in Iraq in the first place, “but if we’re going to get out, take the oil.”
“You know, 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,’” he told NBC moderator Matt Lauer.
His comments sparked a tide of criticism from experts and pundits who said that would amount to a crime, though Mr. Giuliani defended the general contours of the plan.
“Of course it’s legal, it’s a war,” Mr. Giuliani told ABC’s “This Week.” “Until the war is over, anything is legal.”
Mr. Giuliani said that doesn’t mean the U.S. should have taken the oil for itself, necessarily, but controlled it so that it would have been distributed equitably within Iraq.
“We should secure it, so it doesn’t get taken by terrorist forces,” he said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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