No longer welcome, the US is reluctantly getting out of Iraq
According to reports from Iraq, the United States has agreed to the broad outlines of a plan to withdraw all but a small number of American troops from the country in two phases over the next two years — 10 years after Operation Inherent Resolve was established to vanquish the terrorist group ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
The agreement has prompted warnings from lawmakers and national security experts that the move sends the wrong signal to Iraq and could jeopardize operations against ISIS across the border in Syria.
“It gives hope to Tehran that it is succeeding in its long-term goal of ejecting the United States from the region through its proxy militias. Nothing could be less helpful — or more dangerous to our service members who are already in harm’s way,” wrote retired Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, the former top U.S. commander for the Middle East, in a New York Times opinion essay in February.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been “applying enormous political pressure on Iraq to expel U.S. coalition forces,” added House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL). “He's financed, trained, and equipped terrorist militias that have carried out over 175 attacks on U.S. troops in the region, including the January attack at Tower 22 that took the lives of three American soldiers.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/no-longer-welcome-the-us-is-reluctantly-getting-out-of-iraq/ar-AA1rj7pr?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=7e5406e2e80644ccafdc3fa19b233c6f&ei=88
