With the situation in Syria continuing to unravel, Donald Trump is yearning for the days of the strongmen.
In an interview with “Meet The Press” Sunday, Trump argued that the Middle East of today would be much stronger if the likes of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were still in power in Iraq and Libya, respectively.
When asked by host Chuck Todd if the region would be stronger today, Trump told the host it is “not even a contest.”
“It’s not even a contest, Chuck. It’s not even a contest,” said Trump, who tops the Washington Examiner’s latest 2016 power rankings. “Iraq is a disaster. And ISIS … came out of Iraq — the leftovers that didn’t get taken care of.”
“Of course [the Middle East] would be [more stable]. You wouldn’t have had your Benghazi situation, which is one thing which was just a terrible situation,” Trump said. “But, of course, it would. Libya is — is not even — nobody even knows what’s going on over there. It’s not even a country anymore.”
Trump has consistently made it known that he opposed the Iraq War since it began in 2003, a view only shared by Dr. Ben Carson and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., at the time.
