[granada]

The so called power vacuum in iraq was created by the unsuccessful post-war reconstruction and the disastrous arab spring (Syria civil war).

Put Trump in Obama’s shoes, he would have made the same decision. Unless he could manage to force Saudi to pay the money.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"Put Trump in Obama’s shoes, he would have made the same decision."

I hope not, we should have kept a residual force there so as to not create a power vacuum and kept a check on the Shia sectarianism in Iraq. What would it matter to us if our troops are forward deployed in Iraq, rather than Arafjan in Kuwait or a hundred other forward deployed spots we have. As long as they were not getting killed, they were strategically important to be there. Same as our 2000 people in Northern Syria now.