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After all the clamor for moderators to fact-check the candidates during Monday night's presidential debate, Donald Trump flipped the script on Lester Holt by rejecting his assertion Trump backed the war in Iraq - and history backs The Donald.

Holt began one question by stating that Republican nominee Trump had supported the war in Iraq before the invasion, a frequent claim from critics that Trump has adamantly disputed during the primary and general election seasons. Holt on Monday, and many in the media before him, pointed to a September 2002 interview Trump gave to Howard Stern in which he said Yeah, I guess so in response to a question about whether President Bush should go to war.

When Trump pushed back on Holt, saying I was against the war in Iraq, Holt countered: The record does not show that.

Then Trump laid out his case.

The record shows that Im right, he said. When I did an interview with Howard Stern, very lightly, first time anyones asked me that, I said, very lightly, I dont know, maybe, who knows? essentially. I then did an interview with Neil Cavuto. We talked about the economy is more important [than going to war].

Holt repeated that his reference was to 2002 and then tried to move the discussion along.

But Cavuto himself picked up the thread post-debate on Fox Business Network, unearthing the clip Trump referenced, from January 28, 2003 Nearly two months before the Iraq War began on March 20. In the video, Cavuto asks Trump how much time President Bush should spend on the economy vs. on Iraq.

Well, Im starting to think that people are much more focused now on the economy, Trump said. Theyre getting a little bit tired of hearing Were going in, were not going in. Whatever happened to the days of Douglas MacArthur? Either do it or dont do it.

Trump continued: Perhaps he shouldnt be doing it yet. And perhaps we should be waiting for the United Nations.

After the invasion of Iraq, and the subsequent fallout, Trump became a much stronger and far more vocal critic of the war.

Look at the war in Iraq and the mess that were in, he said in an August 2004 issue of Esquire. I would never have handled it that wayTwo minutes after we leave, theres going to be a revolution, and the meanest, toughest, smartest, most vicious guy will take over. And hell have weapons of mass destruction, which Saddam [Hussein] didnt have.

Yet despite the Cavuto clip, and the ambivalence of Trumps own on-the-fence answer during the 2002 Stern interview, post-debate fact-checkers nearly universally wrote that Trump had lied during the exchange with Holt.

Politifact rated the claim False. The website even noted the Cavuto exchange, while remarking At most he suggested waiting for the United Nations to do something.

Politico blared: Trump [again] says he opposed the Iraq War. Thats still false.

Trump seemingly launched his own preemptive strike against the fact-checkers, however, complaining to Holt that the prevailing Trump/Iraq narrative was nonsense.

That is a mainstream media nonsense put out by [Hillary Clinton], Trump said during Mondays debate. Because she Frankly, I think the best person in her campaign is mainstream media.

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2003 clip backs up Trump on Iraq War opposition | Fox News

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Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces vehicle down a main road inthe northern city of Mosul, Iraq.

AP

The Iraqi government appeared to be gearing up for the long-anticipated offensive to reclaim Mosul from Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants, with the Prime Minister announcing a request for more U.S. troops to help in the battle.

A U.S. government official confirmed to CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan that the American military was prepared to meet the request.

In consultation with the Government of Iraq, the United States is prepared to provide additional U.S. military personnel to train and advise the Iraqis as the planning for the Mosul campaign intensifies, said the official.

Mosul is the biggest urban area controlled by ISIS in Iraq -- the countrys second-largest city. It sits about 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. ISIS has controlled the metropolis since the summer of 2014.

Iraqi officials have said they plan to retake the city by the end of the year.

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There is a fierce battle occurring outside of Mosul, the largest ISIS-controlled city in Iraq. U.S.-trained Iraqi army and Kurdish forces have ke...

If the U.S. does send additional military advisers into Iraq, it wont be the first time this year it has done so.

The government said in July that 560 more troops would be deployed to help establish a newly retaken air base as a staging hub for the long-awaited battle to recapture Mosul. Defense Secretary Ash Carter made the announcement himself during an unannounced visit to the country.

Most of those troops were to be devoted to the build-up of the Qayara air base, about 40 miles south of Mosul, and include engineers, logistics personnel and other forces, Carter said in Baghdad. They were to help Iraqi security forces planning to encircle and eventually retake the key city.

These additional U.S. forces will bring unique capabilities to the campaign and provide critical enabler support to Iraqi forces at a key moment in the fight, Carter said in July.

American advisers have been working at brigade level with Iraqi special operations forces for months.

Mr. Obama, in April,allowed U.S. troops to assist Iraqi forces at brigade and battalion levels, where they could be at greater risk closer to the battle. They remain behind front lines. They previously had been limited to advising at headquarters and division levels, further from the battle.

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ISIS still controls about a third of Syria and Iraq, including Mosul. The Iraqi city is isolated from the world since ISIS took it over in 2014. ...

For months, Iraqi Kurdish militias working with the U.S. have been pushing into ISIS territory north of Mosul.

In March this year, CBS News Holly Williams met some of the Mosul residents who had managed aterrifyingescape fromthe ISIS-controlled city, and they told her people in Mosul were growing angry with the militants, and that could make retaking the city a little easier when Iraqi forces eventually begin their offensive.

Williams met one man who showed her the marks of torture; burns from electric wires on his back and arms. His only crime was smoking, illegal under ISIS rule and its harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

Another man said he had seen another Mosul resident beheaded after being caught with a cell phone SIM card. Another told us three men were caught escaping recently, and ISIS hanged them in the street.

Theyre a criminal gang, cried one man. Weve been surviving on water and bread.

When they first came they were tough, said another. But now they can see that Mosul is turning against them.

2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Iraq asks for more US troops for Mosul offensive and America ...

Al-Kindi Street International Zone Baghdad, Iraq

Telephone:0760-030-3000

Telephone:301-985-8841, ext. 4293 or 2413 (U.S. dial numbers that ring in Baghdad)

Emergency After-Hours Telephone:+(964) 770-443-1286 or +(964) 770-030-4888 from the U.S. or 0770-443-1286 or 0770-030-4888 from within Iraq.

U.S. Consulate General Basrah

Basrah, Iraq (near Basrah International Airport) At this time, U.S. Consulate General Basrah does not provide non-emergency consular services; please contact the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for assistance

U.S. Consulate General Erbil

413 Ishtar, Ankawa Erbil, Iraq

Telephone:066-211-4554

Telephone:240-364-3467, ext. 4554

U.S. Citizen Emergency After-Hours Telephone: 240-264-3467 from within the United States or 066-211-4000 from within Iraq, and ask for the duty officer

U.S. Consulate Kirkuk

U.S. Consulate Kirkuk no longer has a physical presence in Kirkuk and does not provide non-emergency consular services. Please contact the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for assistance. The International Zone (IZ) is a restricted-access area. Iraqi authorities control access to the IZ. U.S. citizens seeking to enter the IZ to obtain consular services at the U.S. Embassy should email the American Citizens Services unit for IZ entry information.

The work week in Iraq is Sunday through Thursday.

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Iraq - State

But interviews Trump gave before and after the war prove that he was publicly supportive of the US invasion of Iraq. Trump only began questioning the merits of the war several months later, as US forces became mired in a war against Iraqi insurgents.

Just days after President George W. Bush announced US forces had begun invading Iraq, Trump said in an interview on Fox that the war "looks like a tremendous success from a military standpoint."

He ignored follow-up questions asking for clarification.

Moments earlier, Trump insisted in scripted remarks as he has repeatedly during his presidential campaign that he "was opposed to the war from the beginning" and said that he would have voted against invading Iraq had he been in Congress at the time.

Trump first publicly stated his support for the Iraq War one month before Congress voted to authorize the use of military force in Iraq, when radio host Howard Stern asked him if he favored invading Iraq.

"Yeah, I guess so," Trump said. "You know, I wish the first time it was done correctly."

Trump said that comment was "long before" the war started, even though it came in the heat of the debate on the Iraq War as Congress prepared to vote on the issue.

"It was the first time anybody ever asked me about Iraq and I said, 'Well, I don't know,'" Trump said Thursday, adding those comments were "superseded" by his late comments against the war.

Trump on Thursday pointed to comments he made three months after Congress voted in favor of military action in Iraq, when he told Neil Cavuto of Fox News that "the Iraqi situation is a problem," but that "the economy is a much bigger problem as far as the president is concerned." He did not say he was opposed to the invasion.

Trump's first and most extensive comments against the Iraq War came in an interview with Esquire magazine in August 2004, one year and five months after the US invasion, which Trump described as "very early in the conflict, extremely early in the conflict, right at the beginning" of the war.

But Trump insisted Thursday that "Iraq is one of the biggest differences in this race," pointing to his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's October 2002 vote to authorize military force in Iraq when she was a US senator from New York, which Trump called "a big mistake."

Trump has repeatedly called into question Clinton's "judgment" over her Iraq War vote, even though his own vice presidential nominee Mike Pence also voted in favor of military action as a member of the House of Representatives at the time.

The Republican nominee made his case that he was against the Iraq War by pointing to comments he made in the first months of the Iraq War as "yet more evidence that I had opposed the war from the start."

Trump on Thursday pointed to comments he made to the Washington Post four days after he called the invasion a "tremendous success" in which he called the war a "mess."

But Trump's comments on March 25, 2003, at a post-Oscar party appeared to be a reference to a friendly fire incident that day in which a US missile downed a British fighter jet, causing the stock market to drop more than 300 points.

"If they keep fighting in the way they did today, they're going to have a real problem," Trump said then. "The war's a mess."

Trump also noted that in July 2003 he said on MSNBC that he would like to see some of the money being spent on the war effort go to "New York City and some of the cities and some of the states ... because you know, they really need it and they need it badly."

He did not say he opposed the war in that interview.

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Trump tries again to convince voters he opposed the Iraq war ...

ISIS tries to decrease the advancing soldiers' visibility by burning up oil tankers and flooding the air with smoke. But the troops pushed forward despite black apocalyptic skies, street after street of decimated buildings, torn electric cables whipping across the road, and hot searing winds.

Now they're just a couple of kilometers away from the town center and about 60 kilometers from Mosul. By the end of the year, they say, they will liberate Iraq's second-largest metropolitan area seized by ISIS two years ago.

Since we were last here in April, the Iraqi Army made significant advances in their fight to regain Mosul and the choke-hold around the city is tightening.

Over the last four months, soldiers have methodically toughed it out as they pressed north through villages and towns. At one point, they reached the Tigris River and then dropped a pontoon bridge that ISIS tried but failed to blow up with a boat packed with explosives.

Iraqi security forces also managed to recapture the Qayyara oil refinery, said Col. Mohammed Ibrahim, a spokesman for Iraq's military operations command.

Gen. Najim al-Jobouri, the commander of Iraq's Nineveh operations, said soldiers now sense a weakening ISIS. Before, he said, most of the ISIS attackers were foreign fighters. Now, they are a mix of foreigners and locals.

"I think that they have a lack of foreign fighters," he said.

But there is uncertainty too. Al-Jobouri also wondered whether ISIS will unleash more foreign fighters when the anticipated "Battle of Mosul" ensues.

He chatted while standing in the small lawn of a home where a collection of weapons is on display, made in Iraq and Syria for ISIS.

One was a homemade mortar tube taller than most of the soldiers. Another was a mortar larger than similar munitions at Iraq's disposal.

ISIS has "good engineers working with them," al-Jobouri said, citing the "good professional work" in building weaponry.

Al-Jobouri's biggest concern remain Mosul's civilian population -- at least 1 million people remain in the clutches of an organization known to use the civilian population as human shields.

Not far away, people who've fled ISIS have fled to a makeshift camp for displaced people -- tents set up in the middle of barren land.

Hot desert winds blast across the field. The heat is thick and suffocating. The sand sticks to everything, turning the children's matted hair shades lighter.

People swarm us the moment we arrive.

An elderly woman holds a picture of her son killed by ISIS as she clutches her granddaughter's arm.

We are hustled from tent to tent to see babies, listless and dehydrated. Children don't remember the last time they showered. And everyone repeats, "we are thirsty."

There is no clean water out here, only water drawn from a well making everyone sick. There are two toilets for a population of over 1,000. The diet? Beans and lentils twice a day.

Help has not been on the way, despite promises from international organizations and the Iraqi government. The location is just too close to the front line and the logistics of pre-positioning shelter and aid is exacerbating the misery.

Aid organizations warn of the "humanitarian catastrophe of the century" with more than 1 million people potentially fleeing Mosul and taking flight through its corridors.

It's a catastrophe because it's an anticipated and predictable disaster in the making. There's no justification for not fulfilling the urgent responsibility to ensure shelter, medicine, food, water to those who have already endured too much.

Other nearby camps in safe zones are overcrowded, and the offensive into the city of Mosul has yet to begin.

In Iraqi Kurdistan, the Debaga camp has grown to five times the size it was back in April.

More extensions are being built, but they are barely enough to cover the current backlog. Families cram under tarps and makeshift shelters or pack a school waiting for their accommodations.

"They have fled conflict, fled violence, they come here traumatized often thirsty and severely exhausted and we are not able to provide them with the services they need because we don't have the land," said Elisabeth Koek, advocacy and information adviser at the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Once land is allocated, which needs to be done by Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government, there still is the issue of funding.

Around $284 million was allocated during a flash appeal last month. But money needs to be released immediately, not just when a mass displacement happens and the crisis reaches unmanageable levels.

The need is already painfully evident. All along the various front lines as forces move forward, residents flood out from whichever point they can find.

To the north and east of Mosul the Kurdish Peshmerga have advanced, capturing several villages to the southeast of the city.

Huddled in the shade at a Peshmerga checkpoint is a small group that just fled.

Three women are sisters-in-law, seated quietly still in the black niqabs ISIS forces women to wear, their children clustered around them. Their husbands left two years ago looking for work and were not able to make it back home.

Two of the women have children who have not yet met their fathers and they hope to be reunited soon.

They all hide their faces, scared for the loved ones still under ISIS control and disclose few details of their escape.

One man, a relative, saw an opportunity for the group to flee when the Peshmerga moved closer to his lands.

"I am so happy for them," the man said. "But I am heartbroken myself. My parents were not able to come with me. I don't know how I am going to get them out."

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Iraqi troops, ISIS in their sights, inch toward Mosul - CNN.com