You were talking about developing nuclear weapons.
Our troops on the ground next door can do nothing about that. We’d have to take out their facilities with airstrikes. Israel has no problem getting intel w/o putting large ground troops in place.
If we remain in Iraq a lot of things may or may not happen. How long do we stay there? 50 years? 100 years?
No matter when we go the place will devolve into internecine warfare .... as it has for millennia.
Again, what is there to gain for us unless we are getting paid vast sums by staying? In which case the soldiers are getting screwed because they are not sharing in the booty.
Don't know. We've been in Japan/Germany now for over 50, the former Yugoslavia for 20 and currently the situation in the middle east is much more dangerous. It was foolish to pull out.
Speaking of Israel...I'm sure they would feel a lot safer knowing we had a large number of troops ready to defend her if necessary. On the contrary, we can do a lot more intel with those troops in place. 25,000 for example is much better cover for special ops to move when necessary.