No troop withdrawal, why is Iraq so important to the United States?

It is one of the most important foreign policy decisions of the newest US history: should the administration withdraw Trump its soldiers from Iraq? After the US Army killed Iranian General Ghassem Solejmani in a raid on Baghdad airport, tensions between Washington and Tehran escalated, and Iraq lies between the fronts. Last weekend, the Iraqi Parliament voted for a resolution demanding that all American troops leave the country. A more or less polite expulsion.

In the face of the seriousness of the situation, the approach of the United States to this matter is not really appropriate. The left hand does not seem to know what the right hand is doing. A letter from the US Army to Iraqi counterparts arrived in public Monday. It says that American troops will be installed “”. The letter concludes with the words “We respect your unlimited decision to ask us to withdraw”. But just a little later this was rejected by the military leadership: According to Mark Milley, the chief of US staff, the letter was wrong, a first version that should never have been sent.

Is the Fight Against Terrorism at Risk?

A troop withdrawal from Iraq is therefore staunchly opposed. Presence in Iraq has great strategic significance for the United States for several reasons. On one hand, we can keep personal contact with Iraqi security forces, says Michael O'Hanlon, expert at the Brookings Research Centre in the United States. “We can look directly at which governing frameworks are strong and who are weak. In the past, in our absence, security forces were rapidly manipulated by different parties for political purposes.” This would endanger American troops in the region.

Another cause is the fight against terrorist militia “Islamic State” (IS). “Iraku is able to do better against IS, because we offer air support or with secret services,” said O'Hanlon, a national security expert for DW.

Should the United States suddenly withdraw from Iraq, it would be difficult to predict how the fight against terror will continue there. It could happen that Iraqi forces continue to do well initially,” said OʹHanlon. But he also does not rule out the Islamic State. When US troops withdrew from northern Syria in October 2019, this opened the way for a Turkish offensive. Kurdish fighters, who were supposed to defend against it, could not be kept at the same time prisoners of militants, and it is said that several hundred IS fighters have been rescued from prisons in the region.

Regional counterweight for Iran

The situation in Iraq is really different. But there is still the danger that the war against terrorist militia will fall after the withdrawal of American troops. So for example, there could be a <x0clas in collecting secret service information about I SIS”, Brian Katz, a former CIA official, said last year in an interview with Atlantic Magazine. “People are the best sources when it comes to communicating to the US government the purposes of terrorist groups,” said Katz. “and people need proximity and trust and building relations in the country. ”

Another point that makes the presence in Iraq in the US so important is that Washington thereby builds a counterweight for Iran in the region. In the current situation, this may have invaluable value for Trump's administration. The United States shows in Iraq that Iran is not the only power he can address,” said O'Hanlon.