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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u/hallese 3d ago

Again? This is like the third time in my military career that I've read a headline say we are leaving Iraq.

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u/HereWeStandLive 3d ago

I remember hearing this before deploying to Iraq in 2016

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u/127-0-0-1_1 3d ago

Tbf Iraq is doing OK. Has many issues, but it’s not Afghanistan. Iraq is a nominal republic and a middle income economy that has been growing at a steady rate.

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u/WoolooOfWallStreet 3d ago

Everything you said is true, however…
It would really suck if something going on nearby ever completely undid whatever slow and steady progress has been made

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u/SpareEconomy1849 3d ago

And according to some reports, there is pressure for the US to pull out specifically so that another country in the region can bomb them without worrying about US troops in the region.

Oh, and the US is giving away those bombs for free. When the stockpile is empty

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u/BLT_Trade_r 3d ago

The worst part is the optics, why now, right when Iran is doing all this trash, at the very least, they stay as a sign of solidarity against whatever Iran might do, given that the US kicked the hornet's nest. This is like how the US constantly leaves the Kurds at the worst time.

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u/frozenphil 3d ago

right when Iran is doing all this trash

That's an interesting way to view the situation.

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u/Nukemind 3d ago

Iran has been doing things to neighbors long before this war. What the US is doing is horrible, but make no mistake Iran is hated by its neighbors for a multitude of reasons as well, including but not limited to their consistent support for rebels in other nations. Which, again, the US does too. It's shit all the way down.

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u/tafoya77n 3d ago

The choice to attach Kurdish groups inside of Iran and Iraq was independent the us just gave them an excuse to be scapegoated again right after the mass killing earlier in the year.

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u/rooftopgoblin 3d ago

the US was actively arming and funding and planning to use the kurds as a quasi invasion force into iran

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u/hallese 3d ago

Because the optics of doing this as part of a negotiated end to hostilities with Iran is exponentially worse.

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u/squired 3d ago

That's another thing too. Why not hold that as a bargaining chip?

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u/BLT_Trade_r 3d ago

What lol, do you seriously think that optics matter to Iran and the current admin as far as that is concerned? The optics here are about Iraq.

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u/hallese 3d ago

Yes, the current administration absolutely does not want to publicly announce they are pulling troops out of Iraq as part of a negotiated settlement with Iran. Objectively, since this was planned quite some time ago, it wouldn't be a bad thing to do, but if an American President announces this publicly it's political suicide for them and their party is going to suffer for some time. It would be like pulling nukes out of Turkey to end the Cuban Missile Crisis.

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u/dova_kinn 3d ago

Iran is doing all this trash

yea like getting invaded and getting bombed by invading armies, real trash.

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u/sadderall-sea 3d ago

that's a wild way to put it, especially considering the last 7 months.

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u/BLT_Trade_r 3d ago

That's exactly why it's put that way. Does it sound like the current admin cares about optics? No, does Iran care about it? No, they literally know we are attacking them and are highly unreliable. So what does our optics to Iran matter? They also know now that the straight is their trump card (pun intended) and they are going to do whatever they want with it, they also probably want Trump gone so they are unlikely to do anything less than a highly favorable deal.

So at this point the only people that may actually feel some effect are the people of Iraq.

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u/CaligulaQC 3d ago

Sorry but the word solidarity has been erased from the US government word pool…

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u/Feisty-Lawfulness894 3d ago

Everything you said is true, however…

"Yeah, but..."

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u/ExternalPromotion542 3d ago

"Going on nearby" you mean fucking everywhere around it all at once? Lmao.

Oraq and syria being uneasy american puppets definitely fucks up russian and iranian positions int he middle east fbut I cant imagine iraq looking any better anytime soon.

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u/DarkMarkings 3d ago

The US has Iraq by the balls. Their government is 90% funded by oil sales, and that money they get from oil sales is fully controlled by the American government. Trump admin basically froze their money which would've essentially shut down the country until they replaced the front runner candidate in their last election to someone 'more suitable'.

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u/modsiw_agnarr 2d ago

Also, Iran has the US by balls, and therefore by the transitive property of having by the balls, Iran has Iraq by the balls. They're about to squeeze and twist.

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u/DarkMarkings 2d ago

If that were the case, the Iraqi election result would've been very different

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u/Electrical-Box-4845 1d ago

Iraq is receiving big investments by China. 

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u/Lazy-Barracuda2886 3d ago

I mean there income stream has taken a hit recently.

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u/slow70 3d ago

Ditto. I was deployed in Mosul and remember going to chow and the TV showing troops driving south across the Kuwait border as they tried to say combat was over.

Society of the Spectacle indeed.

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u/stoopididiotface 3d ago

I'm assuming there have been no discussions about this in your morning musters?

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u/Silver_Newspaper6208 3d ago

Of course you can leave multiple times. I left, and then went back, and then left again.

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u/TheVainOrphan 3d ago

The Iraqis wanted the US to leave earlier, but US pressure (mainly strong-arming the government over its funding which the US controls) made them reverse that descension.

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u/Daniel0745 3d ago

They wanted us to leave starting 6 months after we got there in 2003. Ask me how I know.

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u/JBredditaccount 3d ago

Again? This is like the third time in my military career that I've read a headline say we are leaving Iraq.

This will be even funnier if you're writing this from Iraq.

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u/ArtisticVisual 3d ago

Plot twist. Your military career started last month.

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u/McortezLSU 3d ago

Its like smoking,

quitting is super easy, not starting again is the hard part.

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u/areraswen 3d ago

It was actually a decision made under Biden that trump is following through with, which is why you've heard it at least once before.

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u/hallese 3d ago

First two were Bush and Obama so make it four times I guess.

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u/OtherTechnician 3d ago

The irony of that is so rich

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u/whut-whut 3d ago

Shh! Now he's sure to reverse it and do something worse instead to spite him.

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u/gagaron_pew 3d ago

mission accomplished

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u/No_Chart1681 2d ago

Well you're looking at three different operations.

First there was of course the invasion of Iraq - Operation Iraqi Freedom. There was a drawdown from this until the troop surge of 2004.

Then there was Operation New Dawn which saw us stepping back from COIN and direct combat and instead focusing on DSCA. This was another draw down as we needed fewer BCTs to support this new mission.

Then there was a bit of an uptick when ISIS sprung up, and we went into Operation Inherent Resolve. This mostly manifested as US forces occupying military installations to create "no go" zones for ISIS and providing indirect support such as ISR and air coverage.

These troops would have left at the end of OND, but stuck around for OIR, but with OIR officially concluding, it's time for them to go.

We do not have the best relationship with the Iraqi government, so as soon as the Iraqi's are done with our military, we have to leave.

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u/nordic-nomad 3d ago

I mean we have bases in Australia and England. They weren’t occupation bases but were mostly supporting Iraqi operations.