{"id":1450443,"date":"2024-01-13T04:40:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-13T09:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1450443"},"modified":"2024-01-13T04:40:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-13T09:40:00","slug":"after-20-years-its-time-for-american-to-leave-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/after-20-years-its-time-for-american-to-leave-iraq\/1450443\/","title":{"rendered":"After 20 Years, It’s Time For American To Leave Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"

After 20 Years, It’s Time For American To Leave Iraq<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by James Durso, op-ed via The Hill,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

It seemed like a good idea at the time\u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

On Jan. 4, 2024, the U.S. assassinated\u00a0Mushtaq Jawad Kazim al-Jawari,<\/a>\u00a0a commander in an Iran-linked Iraqi militia. The Pentagon\u00a0press release<\/a>\u00a0called the militia a \u201cterrorist group\u201d and claimed the strike was in \u201cself-defense.\u201d <\/strong>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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iraq\u2019s prime minister,\u00a0Mohammed Shia al-Sudani,<\/a>\u00a0criticized the killing and announced that Iraqi and U.S. representatives would soon meet to discuss the\u00a0departure<\/a>\u00a0of U.S. troops from Iraq, saying the justifications for the existence of the coalition \u201chave ended.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2020, Iraq\u2019s parliament passed a resolution demanding the\u00a0expulsion<\/a>\u00a0of U.S. troops <\/strong>after the U.S. killed Iran Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani and PMF leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. \u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2024, will Sudani deliver on that demand?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Jawari\u2019s death comes just weeks after Israel\u2019s\u00a0counterattack<\/a>\u00a0on Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip. The region is enraged over Israel\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria have been attacked\u00a0over 100 times<\/a>\u00a0since 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).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Pentagon produced no \u201cticking bomb\u201d rationale for the killing and would have shouted it from the rooftops if it existed.\u00a0The Pentagon killed Jawari because it could.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

America\u2019s action will increase pressure inside Iraq\u2019s government, as it must deal with popular outrage over Israel\u2019s destruction of the Gaza Strip and the afront to its sovereignty by the Jawari killing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, will the Americans finally leave Iraq?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If the two sides eventually do talk, the Americans will very likely delay and delay \u2014 and then threaten Baghdad by\u00a0increasing restrictions<\/a>\u00a0on Iraq\u2019s 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 \u201coperational security\u201d (i.e., to avoid mocking TikTok videos of the evacuation).<\/p>\n

Evacuating Iraq will threaten support for the U.S. troops in Syria, which the Pentagon claims are there to ensure the \u201cenduring defeat\u201d 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\u00a0extraction<\/a>\u00a0of oil, natural gas and wheat from Syria\u2019s northeast. The American looting of Syria\u2019s wealth – what the Bolsheviks called \u201cexpropriation\u201d – recalls<\/a>\u00a0Gen. Smedley Butler: \u201cI was a racketeer; a gangster for capitalism.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

Thank you for your service, indeed.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If the Americans refuse to leave, the Iraqis cannot do much to force them out, <\/strong>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\u00a0airspace closure<\/a>\u00a0and will be again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

U.S. restraint would have kept Jawari alive, and may have allowed troops\u00a0to 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\u2019t show any gratitude as he does so.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Removing troops from Iraq won\u2019t save much money but will reduce tensions, as they are there as justification for\u00a0American intervention<\/a>\u00a0when they inevitably draw fire. Washington\u2019s 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\u2019s client, Israel.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It has been 20 years since America disrupted the region by attacking Iraq\u00a0based on lies<\/a>: 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 \u2014 but in this case, its absence may help local hearts grow fonder.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nFri, 01\/12\/2024 – 23:40<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bRead More<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After 20 Years, It’s Time For American To Leave Iraq Authored by James Durso, op-ed via The Hill, It seemed like a good idea at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1450443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1450443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1450443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1450443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1450443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}