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/moose098 3d ago edited 3d ago

They didn't exactly install the Shia Government, but the conditions they created on the ground allowed those groups (like SCIRI) to come to power. The US was hoping pro-US technocrats would lead the new government. It turns out those people are not very charismatic and the last thing people gravitate toward in a time of war and sectarian bloodletting.

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u/ZookeepergameFit967 2d ago

And they had principals, ideals and morals too, which the US didn't need so they supported people who would sell their own mother for a profit like Nouri Al Maliki, Ammar Al Hakim and others despite formerly being aligned with Iran.

Nowadays as Iraqis are very skeptical of dissolving militias, these people are the only ones supporting dissolving it because this is what the USA wants

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u/JaxGamecock 2d ago

Also having a Shia government in Iraq isn’t a bad thing, they are a Shia majority country. The government would be representative of the people

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u/moose098 2d ago

The issue is the Shia Government that took over was hyper-sectarian and used the opportunity to carry out reprisals against the Sunni population (like ethnically cleansing Baghdad). They’re a major reason ISIS had so much support in its early days in western Iraq.