In a departure from what U.S. President Donald Trump has been saying, Defence Secretary James Mattis said they were not in Iraq to seize oil.
According to CNN, before leaving for his first trip to Baghdad, Mattis told reporters, "We're not in Iraq to seize anybody's oil."
On the other hand, Trump, a day after his inauguration, had said, "We should have kept the oil. Maybe we'll have another chance."
Trump repeated his statement in another interview. He said, "We should have taken the oil. You wouldn't have ISIS if we took the oil."
Mattis is heading to Baghdad because he wants to get on the current situation there, including political, enemy and the friendly.
"We're going to make certain we've got good shared situational awareness of what we face as we work together, fight alongside each other to destroy ISIS. That's the point about going in there," said Mattis.
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