Washington – AP FACT CHECK: Trump On Iraq War

Washington – Donald Trump delivered a ferocious putdown of George W. Bush from the debate stage, central to his effort to convince voters that they don’t want another Bush deciding when to take the country to war. But were his key facts right?

In short, he told it like it was, and like it wasn’t, in a multipronged indictment of the ex-president, laid out in front of a livid Jeb Bush, the Republican presidential candidate and former president’s younger brother.

A look at some of Trump’s claims, other assertions by Republican presidential hopefuls in the debate and how they stack up with the facts:

TRUMP: “I’m the only one on this stage that said: ‘Do not go into Iraq. Do not attack Iraq.’ Nobody else on this stage said that. And I said it loud and strong.”

THE FACTS: No record has been established that Trump issued a clarion call against the March 2003 invasion of Iraq before it happened. In his few unearthed comments before the invasion, he said the economy was a bigger problem than Iraq.

In the first week after the invasion, he told The Washington Post at a post-Oscars party that “the war’s a mess” and, “If they keep fighting it the way they did today, they’re going to have a real problem.” In another venue, he predicted stock market gains. He praised then-President George W. Bush before and after the war started. It was not until 2004 that he took a “loud and clear” line, asserting “all of the reasons for the war were blatantly wrong.”

To be sure, he was well ahead of Bush loyalists in making that harsh judgment. But it does not reflect the foresight he claims to have had before the war started and went downhill.

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TRUMP: “They said there were weapons of mass destruction. There were none.”

THE FACTS: He is right that no weapons of mass destruction were found — undermining a central rationale for the invasion. Another rationale for the war, that Iraq had close ties with al-Qaida terrorists, also proved bogus.

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TRUMP on trying to kill Osama bin Laden: “George Bush had the chance, also, and he didn’t listen to the advice of his CIA.”

THE FACTS: It’s true that the Bush administration received repeated warnings from the CIA and other elements of the intelligence apparatus that bin Laden’s al-Qaida organization was planning to attack in the U.S., and soon. Most famously, a top-secret document prepared by intelligence agencies, in early August 2001, came with the headline: Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.

It’s the subject of continuing — perhaps endless — debate whether such warnings were specific enough so that the U.S. could have headed off the attacks of that Sept. 11.

TRUMP: “Iran has taken over Iraq.”

THE FACTS: That’s an over-the-top conclusion, tapping a real concern that Iran has too much influence.

Iraq is a sovereign nation with its own government, armed forces and right to act independently. Both the U.S. and Iran have great influence over the military struggle against the Islamic State group.

Iranian clout skyrocketed after U.S. troops withdrew in late 2011, but was countered in 2014 when the Islamic State militants destabilized the Iraqi military and took over about a third of the country. Since then, Iranian military advisers have been key in guiding Iraqi ground troops toward victory in cities like Tikrit and Jurf al-Sukhar, and Washington remains worried about the risk of Iran staging a de facto takeover.