In the last week’s blog, I expressed my concern about the current administration‘s recent announcement that they intended to reduce US troop levels in Afghanistan from 4500 down to 2500. This week I’d like to share a similar concern I have about another announced reduction in troop levels.
This time it’s in Iraq. And the announced reduction is from 3000 to 2500. It’s my belief that this would also be unwise. Here’s why.
As we all know, the Obama administration‘s unexpected withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq some years back resulted in a power vacuum, that was promptly filled by the murderous ISIS terror group, which has evolved into IS (the Islamic State.) ISIS/IS at the height of its power, had taken over about a third of Iraq, and was threatening to take Baghdad itself. Fortunately, decisive action by the US military, ordered by President Trump, led to the defeat of ISIS, and it no longer holds much, if any, real estate, although it still carries out hit and run attacks.
The US military has been training Iraqi forces to carry out the bulk of operations against IS in Iraq, and has, for example, cleared nearly 90 villages this past summer of IS terrorists. US support was critical in the success of this effort, in intelligence gathering, planning, and air support. This is the way it’s supposed to work – we provide support, but the bulk of the fighting is done by our ally, in this case, Iraqi forces.
Let’s not screw it up by withdrawing the support prematurely, and risking another defeat of an ally, another power vacuum, the re-emergence of a threat like ISIS, and the accompanying slaughter of innocents, and the US having to commit even more resources to put ISIS down all over again.
One other concern I have about pulling US assets out of Iraq too quickly – it could elevate even further Iranian influence there. When we took out Saddam Hussein (who was a Sunni) in Iraq, this strengthened Iranian influence there since Iraq and Iran are both majority Shia countries. The Iranian government has been very anti-US since the 1979 revolution there. And they have been fomenting war and instability throughout the region for years now. The last thing we want to see is Iraq becoming a complete vassal state under Iran. This would only elevate Iran’s ability to spread even more chaos throughout the region.
We mustn’t let that happen. In my opinion, we should maintain our current troop levels in Iraq to ensure that we can assist the Iraqis to resist both the IS and Iran.