'Two decades of a failed and costly strategy in Afghanistan made the decision to leave an obvious one. But the case for leaving Iraq is even stronger. Many elected leaders in the Iraqi political system that Washington helped spawn want U.S. troops to depart the country. The fact that their presence has not been a subject of intense domestic debate shows how inured we’ve become to a long military presence abroad.
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U.S. troops in Iraq ended their combat mission in December. The Biden administration has since assured Americans that the troops that remain in Iraq are there in a strictly advisory capacity. But we have been down this road before. As 2014 closed, President Barack Obama similarly declared that “our combat mission in Afghanistan is ending” and we would shift entirely to a “train, advise and assist” mission. Yet it took 107 more U.S. deaths, 612 American soldiers wounded in action, hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars and six more years for American operations to truly end.
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Pulling out of Iraq is unlikely to be trouble-free. But with the withdrawal from Afghanistan still visible in the rearview mirror, Iraqi partners may actually prepare for U.S. troops to leave this time around. The price of inaction is to force U.S. soldiers to be sitting ducks in a geopolitical tinderbox.''..The United States withdrew from Afghanistan last year because its presence there no longer served its interests. Neither does staying in Iraq.
The U.S. experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq made painfully clear that there is no magic number of American troops that can eradicate terrorism..
President Biden stated that his decision to leave Afghanistan was not just about Afghanistan. “It’s about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries,” he proclaimed. That era will not truly end until the United States has withdrawn all of its forces from Iraq.
Mr. Biden should announce plans for a phased troop withdrawal beginning no later than this spring. It should be closely coordinated with Iraqi, regional and European partners. The specter of a backlash at home, similar to the criticism over the withdrawal from Afghanistan, will weigh heavily on Mr. Biden. But if he doesn’t act, attacks on U.S. troops will inevitably increase, making it politically more difficult to leave while simultaneously increasing the risk of the United States getting dragged into a larger conflict in the event of a miscalculation or provocation by a brazen militia, Washington or Iran.
Two decades of a failed and costly strategy in Afghanistan made the decision to leave an obvious one. But the case for leaving Iraq is even stronger. Many elected leaders in the Iraqi political system that Washington helped spawn want U.S. troops to depart the country. The fact that their presence has not been a subject of intense domestic debate shows how inured we’ve become to a long military presence abroad.
Proponents of staying in Iraq argue it is crucial to collect intelligence on terrorist groups like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda and prevent an adversary from filling any “vacuum” resulting from a U.S. departure. Nearly identical arguments were made in the case of Afghanistan.
But the truth is that the U.S. presence has helped fuel insurgencies in Iraq. Al Qaeda, and later, the Islamic State, were able to take advantage of their gains against the state and the chaos that ensued. Iraq’s neighbors will always have a greater interest in the country’s future than the United States does.
Moreover, the argument that troops are needed to combat the Islamic State — as in the recent raid that resulted in the death of the Islamic State’s leader in northwestern Syria (a country with a small U.S. military presence of its own) — does not hold up. Iraq and neighboring countries that fought the group are increasingly capable of preventing a significant resurgence on their own. Pursuing “ISIS zero” is a recipe to stay in Iraq forever.
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U.S. troops in Iraq ended their combat mission in December. The Biden administration has since assured Americans that the troops that remain in Iraq are there in a strictly advisory capacity. But we have been down this road before. As 2014 closed, President Barack Obama similarly declared that “our combat mission in Afghanistan is ending” and we would shift entirely to a “train, advise and assist” mission. Yet it took 107 more U.S. deaths, 612 American soldiers wounded in action, hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars and six more years for American operations to truly end.
The United States does not have the answer for Iraq’s woes. It cannot allay the frustration of Iraqis over an unresponsive government and political violence; it is ill equipped to mediate between Iraq’s competing factions or untangle the web of crisscrossing interests that stymies progress.
Nor can it change the reality that some of Iraq’s most powerful political blocs see their interests reflected in Iran while others feel sidelined. Even Iran lacks the ability to control Iraq’s infighting and the brazen antics of power-hungry militias, a reality that a former acting and deputy director of the C.I.A., Michael Morell, warned the Senate about in June 2020.
Pulling out of Iraq is unlikely to be trouble-free. But with the withdrawal from Afghanistan still visible in the rearview mirror, Iraqi partners may actually prepare for U.S. troops to leave this time around. The price of inaction is to force U.S. soldiers to be sitting ducks in a geopolitical tinderbox.'
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Why Are American Troops Still in Iraq? February 10, 2022
Context Watchdog describes litany of US failures in Afghanistan mission'Russia built much of its geopolitical resurgence on opposition to the West’s flawed wars in the Middle East..' - '..disastrous decisions of the Bush administration to invade..'(To learn to train for peace - Train for Peace) - '..the United States has no compelling military need to keep a permanent troop presence in the Middle East.'(The Afghanistan Papers) - 'U.S. officials constantly said they were making progress. They were not, and they knew it.' By Craig WhitlockVeterans groups .. in favor of winding down American military involvement in the Middle East'..American troop withdrawal from Iraq..''..only a few areas of the globe are of vital importance to U.S. security or prosperity..'