UPDATE: WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - The United States has no plans to pull out militarily from Iraq, Defense Secretary Mark Esper told Pentagon reporters on Monday, following reports by Reuters and other media of a U.S. military letter about a withdrawal.
“There’s been no decision whatsoever to leave Iraq,” Esper said, when asked about the letter, adding there had also been no plans issued to prepare to leave.
“I don’t know what that letter is ... We’re trying to find out where that’s coming from, what that is. But there’s been no decision made to leave Iraq. Period.”
Esper added the United States was still committed to countering Islamic State in Iraq, alongside America’s allies and partners.
What are we to make of this letter? Was this fabricated?
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Wait and see. Between these threads indicating WITHDRAWAL and the ones DENYING WITHDRAWAL; take a wait and see approach.
If this is real, did this General Seely just go off any make up whatever he felt like doing? Or what happened?
Note that the Prime Minister has not asked us to leave, so the letter states something that is not true.
It is either a fabrication, or a draft letter the command asked for to have IN CASE the Prime Minister asked and the president decided to go along with it.
We also don’t know for a fact that this letter was sent to Iraq. We know the newspapers have it, and published it.