Trump calls on partners to increase support against ISIS on CENTCOM visit

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The United States reaffirmed its military support its allies in the fight against ISIS, but called for partner nations “to pay their fair share,” as the US commander in chief, President Donald Trump, visited the headquarters of the US Central Command (CENTCOM), which coordinates the involvement of all branches of the US military’s in conflicts ranging from North Africa across the Middle East and central Asia.

“We are up against an enemy that celebrates death, and totally worships destruction,” Trump said on Tuesday during a press briefing at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. “[ISIS] is on a campaign of genocide, committing atrocities across the world. Radical Islamic terrorists are determined to strike our homeland as they did on 9/11, as they did from Boston to Orlando to San Bernardino.”

Trump did not specify what nations or allies needed to increase their efforts in the fight against ISIS, but he affirmed support for NATO.

He has previously critiqued multinational organizations and partnerships like the United Nations, the European Union, and pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal in his first days of office.

The United States leads an international coalition against ISIS, a coalition which includes NATO.

Trump added, “We strongly support NATO. We only ask that all the NATO members make their full and proper financial contributions to the NATO alliance, which many of them have not been doing.”

Trump met with Army Gen. Joseph L. Votel, the CENTCOM commander, as well as with General Raymond Thomas, who leads the US special operations command (SOCOM), which directs covert missions utilizing elements from various US special forces.

The US-led coalition provides training, air strikes, artillery support and advisors to its Kurdish and Iraqi partners. Votel met with Kurdish President Masoud Barzani in Erbil in September 2016 regarding Mosul operations and the Kurdish Peshmerga’s role in securing towns and areas east of Mosul, the last ISIS stronghold in Iraq.

“What we are seeing so far is that the plan the Iraqi security forces have put together along with their Kurdish partners,” Votel said shortly after operations began on Oct. 17, “is meeting the needs of what we must do right now.”

In September 2016 under former President Barack Obama, the US agreed to provide $415 million for Peshmerga salaries. Prior to Mosul operations, around 1,700 Peshmerga had lost their lives, 1,200 of whom were killed in the first year. 

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