The mission change in Iraq comes as the United States is also nearly finished withdrawing from Afghanistan, despite fears among some experts that terrorism could thrive in the country without an American military presence. John Hyten said the drawdown in Iraq is necessary to ensure the military is prepared for a fight with China, or maybe Russia, if that day comes. That has required significant blood and treasure for us to defend ourselves against that threat and the fact that there's been no long large scale attack since Sept.
And we have to make sure that we focus our attention on those. So that means, and you've seen it in Afghanistan and you're seeing it play out now in Iraq — and I'm not gonna make any announcements today, because that's the job of the folks across the river to make those announcements. But what you can see is, understanding that we have to not ignore the threats in the Middle East, but deal with the threat to the Middle East in a different way, with a smaller footprint, so we can divert more of our body on threats in China and Russia.
American combat troops deployed in Iraq in with the goal of ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and toppling dictator Saddam Hussein. Combat operations ended in , and nearly all troops left the next year, only to have to return in to combat the rise of the Islamic State.
When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.
Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference.
You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc. For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so.
You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www. Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties.
These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. The Department of Defense provides the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security.
Skip to main content Press Enter. Photo By: Army Sgt. Robert Douglas. Related News: U. Subscribe to Defense. Still, he said, the Biden administration is reviewing U.
Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. She covers operations, policy, personnel, leadership and other issues affecting service members. Your Military. By Meghann Myers. While agreeing this week to a withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq, neither Iraqi nor US leaders can admit publicly how much they need each other.
This week, the heads of the Iraqi and US governments agreed to conclude the American combat mission in Iraq by the end of the year. The statement also noted that bases used by US personnel were "Iraqi bases and are operating per existing Iraqi laws" and that any international soldiers were there strictly to help in the fight against the extremist group known as the "Islamic State" IS.
The agreement comes as no surprise to observers and locals, because it is the indirect result of events in January On January 3 that year, senior Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani and a senior Iraqi military leader, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, were killed by a US drone strike as they were leaving Baghdad airport. Angered by the extrajudicial assassination on Iraqi soil, local politicians voted later in January to expel all US soldiers.
This week's decision is the result of that non-binding parliamentary vote. However, as has been noted elsewhere, despite the fanfare with which this conscious uncoupling was announced, this isn't a wholesale withdrawal of the drastic kind recently experienced in Afghanistan. The decision is more likely to see US troops shuffled around and their roles redefined than any reduction in troop numbers. There are currently around 2, US soldiers in the country.
The New York Times described the new agreement as "a set piece of diplomatic theater," and Sabereen News , a channel on the Telegram messenger service dedicated to the PMF, exclaimed angrily: "No American soldier will be withdrawn So why all the theatrics? Most likely because ongoing tolerance for the US presence in Iraq is a kind of open secret, something that almost everyone in power tacitly agrees upon but that politicians on all sides won't talk about publicly.
If the US left altogether, it's likely that other countries like the UK and Germany would follow suit. If that happened, Iraq would become "a pariah state," Mansour added, "one that's closed off to the world. And this is not something that even Iran — the US' avowed adversary in Iraq — necessarily wants.
0コメント