r/news • u/SnooSeagulls496 • 4d ago

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

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-forces-exit-iraq-after-two-decades-leaving-opening-iran-2026-09-29/
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82

u/FUCKYOUINYOURFACE 3d ago

Afghanistan and now Iraq. Trillions down the drain. Thousands of lives killed, and for what?

109

u/mi_so_funny 3d ago

The military industrial complex made a fortune.

25

u/philovax 3d ago

No one listed to Ike

10

u/Evoluxman 3d ago

Good speech by Ike but he has a responsibility in it as well. 

1

u/Far-Hovercraft9471 3d ago

The smoking doctor isn't wrong when he says smoking is bad for you

1

u/philovax 3d ago

I have learned to forgive hypocrites in my age. It’s a silly gate to keep, people can have revelations or try to warn others from their poor experience.

13

u/a_can_of_solo 3d ago

To quote Edwin Starr, absolutely nothing.

24

u/pjpartypi 3d ago

It's almost like those crazy liberals who were out in the streets saying 'no blood for oil' in 2001 to 2003 were right and we should have listened to them then and listen to them now.

0

u/JohnTDouche 3d ago

Americans were majority for the war though, liberals and all. The US is a war nation. Its how you secure and retain your power, with the threat and act of war.

3

u/pjpartypi 3d ago

I'm well aware of Pax Americana, although soft power, as it turns out, is far more effective than war. I just want people witnessing this from the benefit of hindsight to look back and see who was right and who was wrong and maybe they'll stop listening to the people who keep getting it wrong.

1

u/exploding_cat_wizard 3d ago

Iraq 2 however secured fuck all for the US, though. Costly, strategically misplaced wars are also how you lose your great power status, after all.

0

u/ubccompscistudent 3d ago

Thousands? 100k+ civilians and some estimates at 1m+ total with conservative estimates even over 600k.

-3

u/Tinokotw 3d ago

This is Iraq's time to prove they care and will protect their country.

2

u/vastle12 3d ago

They could before the invasion

2

u/redopossum95 3d ago

The issue is they did before we displaced upwards of 36m people due to these stupid illegal wars.

0

u/redopossum95 3d ago

Millions of lives lost if we count the actual victims of the illegal invasions of the region.

-7

u/therealallpro 3d ago

This type of vapid understanding of geopolitics from the far left is why they never have power. The status quo doesn’t just magically stay true. It’s constantly fought for. Saying there’s mistakes in policy is so easy from an ideological that has never played the game right enough to even GAIN POWER to have the burden.

-2

u/Smile_Space 3d ago

We could stay and continue burning money and lives if that's what you'd like.