Report: Biden ought to jump at the chance to pull troops out of Iraq
Shafaq News / As expected, Iraq’s major political blocs dominated this month’s parliamentary elections (“Sadr’s victory will not ease Iraq’s malaise”, FT View, October 21). While cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s bloc emerged as the kingmaker in the next parliament, it’s highly unlikely the results will instil much confidence from an Iraqi public that is disillusioned and dejected by its own politicians.
Because the seating of a new Iraqi government will require Sadr’s support, there is a decent chance that the US military presence in Iraq will come to an end. Sadr has been relatively consistent in his worldview since the initial stages of the US occupation, when his fighters battled US forces in the streets of Baghdad: Iraq needs to be cleansed of foreign influence. When the intraparty horse-trading is finally over, US officials may be dealing with a government in Baghdad that wants all US forces out of the country.
Some US officials will shudder at such a thought, believing a post-US Iraq will drift further into Iran’s orbit.
In reality, however, the Biden administration should embrace the invitation to leave. The US military presence in Iraq was guided by one mission and one mission alone: defeat Isis’s territorial caliphate. This job was accomplished with great fanfare nearly four years ago, when Baghdad wiped out the last patch of Isis territory along the Iraq-Syria border in December 2017.
US troops have been training and advising the more professional Iraqi security forces ever since, a mission that has taken on an almost meandering-like quality.
Isis is now relegated to a set of loose, localised cells whose attack plans largely centre on targets of opportunity. The group is now a shell, having spoiled whatever support it once had from Sunni communities who viewed the Iraqi government with disdain. There is no need for 2,500 US troops to be stationed in Iraq any more. If Sadr requests a US military departure, Washington should be happy to oblige.
Source: Financial Times
