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After 20 Years, It's Time For American To Leave Iraq
The Hill ^ | 01/12/2024 | James Durso

Posted on 01/12/2024 9:14:22 PM PST by SeekAndFind

It seemed like a good idea at the time…

On Jan. 4, 2024, the U.S. assassinated Mushtaq Jawad Kazim al-Jawari, a commander in an Iran-linked Iraqi militia. The Pentagon press release called the militia a “terrorist group” and claimed the strike was in “self-defense.” But it neglected to mention the militia was also part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an Iraqi government body that falls under the Ministry of Defense.

Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, criticized the killing and announced that Iraqi and U.S. representatives would soon meet to discuss the departure of U.S. troops from Iraq, saying the justifications for the existence of the coalition “have ended.”

In 2020, Iraq’s parliament passed a resolution demanding the expulsion of U.S. troops after the U.S. killed Iran Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani and PMF leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

In 2024, will Sudani deliver on that demand?

Jawari’s death comes just weeks after Israel’s counterattack on Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip. The region is enraged over Israel’s treatment of Palestinian civilians; the killing of an Iraqi official, in the city of Baghdad, no less, will undoubtably worsen relations between Baghdad and Washington at a time when the U.S. is busy in Gaza and the Red Sea.

U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria have been attacked over 100 times since October 2023. Retaliation by the Americans is fair enough, but killing a senior Iraqi commander near the anniversary of the assassinations of Soleimani and Muhandis is professional malpractice, as it looks like the killing was approved with no concern for the consequences (though some may think it was a clever warning to others).

The Pentagon produced no “ticking bomb” rationale for the killing and would have shouted it from the rooftops if it existed. The Pentagon killed Jawari because it could.

America’s action will increase pressure inside Iraq’s government, as it must deal with popular outrage over Israel’s destruction of the Gaza Strip and the afront to its sovereignty by the Jawari killing.

So, will the Americans finally leave Iraq?

If the two sides eventually do talk, the Americans will very likely delay and delay — and then threaten Baghdad by increasing restrictions on Iraq’s foreign currency reserves held by the U.S. Federal Reserve. The Iraqis may push past that and demand a publicly announced schedule, though Washington will want to keep the details secret for “operational security” (i.e., to avoid mocking TikTok videos of the evacuation).

Evacuating Iraq will threaten support for the U.S. troops in Syria, which the Pentagon claims are there to ensure the “enduring defeat” of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). In reality, with ISIS being defeated in 2019, the troops are really there to someday support a coup against the Bashar al-Assad government in Damascus, and to provide security for the extraction of oil, natural gas and wheat from Syria’s northeast. The American looting of Syria’s wealth - what the Bolsheviks called “expropriation” - recalls Gen. Smedley Butler: “I was a racketeer; a gangster for capitalism.”

Thank you for your service, indeed.

If the Americans refuse to leave, the Iraqis cannot do much to force them out, other than declare the U.S. forces are in the country illegally and that it has no host nation obligation to protect them. The militias will attack the American bases, but the real threat may come from patriotic Iraqi truckers who will refuse to deliver food, water and fuel to the U.S. outposts. If the U.S. attempts resupply by air, Baghdad can close the airspace to foreign military aircraft. The Kurds may try to cooperate with the U.S., as there is an American facility at Erbil airport, but they were brought to heel by a previous airspace closure and will be again.

If the supply line to the U.S. bases in Iraq is severed, the U.S. presence in Syria is threatened; this will please Damascus, Tehran and Baghdad, as the U.S. troops there are the cause of local instability, not a preventative. Washington will carp about increased Iranian influence in the region, but it was the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq that handed Iraq to Iran on a salver.

U.S. restraint would have kept Jawari alive, and may have allowed troops to stay in the country a little longer, but his killing will likely strengthen Sudani, as he will claim he was the Iraqi leader who saw the Americans off. He won’t show any gratitude as he does so.

Removing troops from Iraq won’t save much money but will reduce tensions, as they are there as justification for American intervention when they inevitably draw fire. Washington’s dream of a coup in Damascus will hopefully vanish; a coup would invite intervention by Russia, Turkey, Iran and Islamist forces, which would then increase pressure on Washington’s client, Israel.

It has been 20 years since America disrupted the region by attacking Iraq based on lies: that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and that Iraq was cooperating with al-Qaeda. America is still respected in the region for its many achievements, even though it brings violence and chaos in its wake — but in this case, its absence may help local hearts grow fonder.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Iraq; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: departure; dodindustrialcomplex; iraq

1 posted on 01/12/2024 9:14:22 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Iraq is long lost.

It will remain a nexus of Jihad until Mekka is nuked from Space and Islam is eradicated worldwide.


2 posted on 01/12/2024 9:18:44 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: SeekAndFind

Who wrote this anti American pile of bs?


3 posted on 01/12/2024 9:20:45 PM PST by Williams (Stop Tolerating The Intolerant)
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To: SeekAndFind
Lol, "fight them over there," so you don't notice the invasion coming from the South.

Thank you, GOP!

4 posted on 01/12/2024 9:22:47 PM PST by Trailerpark Badass (“There should be a whole lot more going on than throwing bleach,” said one woman)
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To: Williams

RE: Who wrote this anti American pile of bs?

The author’s background is here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-durso-0497a72/


5 posted on 01/12/2024 9:23:46 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

we lost it when pelosi took over HOR in 2006


6 posted on 01/12/2024 9:30:48 PM PST by bankwalker (Repeal the 19th ...)
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To: SeekAndFind

LOL - I thought Obama left Iraq in 2010

That what the Hope and Change MSM told me....


7 posted on 01/12/2024 9:32:31 PM PST by PGR88
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To: SeekAndFind

End the forever wars one war at a time.


8 posted on 01/12/2024 9:40:33 PM PST by glorgau
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To: SeekAndFind

Anybody remember GW Bush saying that the war on terror will not be won in a short time. IMO it might go like the War on Poverty and the War on Drugs.
Heck! There doesn’t seem to be the right incentives to win these wars.


9 posted on 01/12/2024 9:53:53 PM PST by Honest Nigerian
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To: Trailerpark Badass

Remember the flypaper theory from 20 years ago?


10 posted on 01/12/2024 10:20:29 PM PST by nwrep
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To: Honest Nigerian

I wish they’d declare war on big booby blondes, we have them everywhere.


11 posted on 01/12/2024 10:21:48 PM PST by Keyhopper (Indians had bad immigration laws)
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To: Honest Nigerian
--- "Anybody remember GW Bush saying that the war on terror will not be won in a short time. IMO it might go like the War on Poverty and the War on Drugs. Heck! There doesn’t seem to be the right incentives to win these wars."

But what is most evident is there are all the corrupt incentives (for the few and the elite) to continue these wars.

Translation for the pretend 'patriots': "not win these wars."

We should put the United States first -- which means above other nations, period. That the elite politicos and media have led us down a false path is proven by:

Debt Clock

Federal Budget Deficit Grew to $2 Trillion in FY 2023 Tax Foundation, 12 October 2023


12 posted on 01/13/2024 3:29:34 AM PST by Worldtraveler once upon a time (Degrow government)
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To: Williams

We should have never been there begin with.


13 posted on 01/13/2024 5:10:20 AM PST by Sir_Humphrey (The “only Trumpers” are just as damaging to the conservative cause as are the “never Trumpers”)
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To: SeekAndFind

My question to all those who supported invading Iraq is this:

Was it worth it?


14 posted on 01/13/2024 5:11:33 AM PST by Sir_Humphrey (The “only Trumpers” are just as damaging to the conservative cause as are the “never Trumpers”)
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To: Sir_Humphrey

Was it worth it?

Only for those who reaped financial rewards (the “connected”)
They have done exceedingly well milking this particular cow.


15 posted on 01/13/2024 5:13:52 AM PST by Rlsau1
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To: Sir_Humphrey

Was it worth it?

Only for those who reaped financial rewards (the “connected”)
They have done exceedingly well milking this particular cow.


16 posted on 01/13/2024 5:14:16 AM PST by Rlsau1
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To: Paladin2

The proper response to 9/11 would have been to use the MOAB’s, multiples on Mecca and Medina. Of course, on the day of their biggest crowds. Then broadcast to the towel heads the fact that Allah is not God. He cannot protect their most sacred sites. It would have teed off the Saudis and the Mullahs. PERFECTION acheived. It is what they want to do to ALL of those not bowing to their Rock God.


17 posted on 01/13/2024 5:16:33 PM PST by Glad2bnuts (“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: We should have set up ambushes...paraphrased)
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To: SeekAndFind
Nation building just gets alot of America's finest dead (or permanently disabled).
18 posted on 01/13/2024 5:21:30 PM PST by McGruff (Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f*** things up - Barack Obama)
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To: SeekAndFind

Should have left Saddam in power.


19 posted on 01/13/2024 5:23:05 PM PST by McGruff (Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f*** things up - Barack Obama)
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