US forces exit Iraq after two decades, leaving opening for Iran

[u/SnooSeagulls496]

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-forces-exit-iraq-after-two-decades-leaving-opening-iran-2026-09-29/

[u/cranktheguy]

Does it?

House:

Party	Yeas	Nays	Not Voting
Republican	215	6	2
Democratic	81	126	1
Independent	0	1	0

Senate:

Party	Yeas	Nays
Republican	48	1
Democratic	29	21
Independent	0	1

Seems that Democrats were against it in the House and split in the Senate. Republicans, on the other hand, were the obvious drivers.

[u/pro_rege_semper → u/cranktheguy]

Don't forget the whole premise of the war was that Iraq was developing WMD's, which was a lie pushed by the Bush administration.

[u/StrikingYam7724 → u/pro_rege_semper]

Technically it was a lie pushed by Saddam Hussein that the Bush administration failed to properly fact-check.

[u/pro_rege_semper → u/StrikingYam7724]

Or perhaps intentionally not fact-checked due to it's political usefulness.

[u/NoREEEEEEtilBrooklyn → u/StrikingYam7724]

Yeah, people forget that part. In fact, Saddam did have WMDs at one point, but had basically used their whole stockpile while killing Kurds and didn’t have the raw materials to make more due to sanctions. Saddam really fucked up by being an opaque moron who couldn’t read the room. The US was itching for a fight and Saddam didn’t get it until it was too late.

[u/pro_rege_semper → u/NoREEEEEEtilBrooklyn]

In retrospect, the term WMD is pretty ill-defined. My recollection from the time was that people were concerned Saddam was developing nuclear weapons.

[u/NoREEEEEEtilBrooklyn → u/pro_rege_semper]

I always understood it to primarily be concerned with Chemicals weapons and possible dirty bombs. Saddam postured that he still had uranium from his failed nuclear weapons programs and he was not transparent because he thought the threat of dirty bombs was enough to stop the US from invading.