US refusal to withdraw troops escalates gamble with Iraq

Source
China Military Online
Editor
Yang Tao
Time
2020-01-20 17:24:34
US troops stationed in Iraq carry out military operations

After the US military killed Iran's Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of IRGC's al-Quds Forces, in Iraq's capital city Baghdad, the tit-for-tat military operations between the US and Iran almost pushed Iraq to the verge of proxy wars. Although Baghdad demanded the US troops to leave as soon as possible, the US has refused to withdraw the troops and they may have more furious game on this issue in the time to come.

The US has an ax to grind by stationing troops in Iraq.

There are several reasons why the US military has been so adamant on staying in Iraq despite the host country repeatedly showing them the door.

First, it's for the sake of saving face. The "official" reason why they killed Soleimani was that he has planned the killing of more than 600 American officers and soldiers stationed in Iraq in recent years and has long been committed to kick the US troops out of the country. After the killing, Iran strongly called on Iraq to drive out the US troops as soon as possible. If the US is pulled out of Iraq at this moment, it will, on the one hand, cause doubts about the "proper reason" for killing Soleimani and, on the other hand, be mocked as a "coward" by Iran. Therefore, it won't withdraw the troops from Iraq anytime soon.

Second, the US needs to take the upcoming presidential election into account. The US media generally held that the Iraqi issue is one of the most important topics that wield influence over the recent four American presidential elections. In 2004, the Iraqi war ruined John Kerry’s efforts to replace George Walker Bush as the Republicans slashed him for being too soft on national security issues. In the presidential campaigns of 2008 and 2016, both Obama and Trump attacked Hillary Clinton for her self-contradictory Iraqi policies. Now in the preliminaries for the 2020 United States presidential election, Republicans like Joe Biden once again used Trump’s failed Iraqi policy as a weapon against the current president. Trump has been so tough on keeping the US troops in Iraq partly because he has to gain more chips for winning the re-election.

Third, the US has to safeguard its strategic interests. Occupying a predominant position in America's networks of interests in the Middle East, Iraq is considered by the US as a place it cannot afford to lose because it is not only an important battlefield to curb Iran and Syria, but also the forefront in the international anti-terrorism campaign.

US under huge pressure

From all perspectives of views, we can conclude that the US-Iraq game on the withdrawal of American troops will keep fermenting for some time. The US will face pressure from two directions if it hopes to keep its troops there.

On the one hand, Iraq will continue to push the American troops to leave. According to media reports, the assassination of Soleimani is like the "last straw" on US-Iraq relations that have been increasingly estranged in recent years. Next, Baghdad will possibly take more steps to "drive" the US troops out of its territory.

In the meantime, countries like Iran and Russia will give a hand to Iraq. Baghdad and Tehran are discussing how to continue their bilateral trade without using US dollar, and Baghdad said Washington’s sanction against Iran doesn’t comply with the international law, according to Dr. Sa'ad Javad Qandil, the Iraqi ambassador to Tehran.

On the other hand, there are constant waves of criticism in the US as well. Both the American government and the Iraqi parliament estimated that the Iraq’s national economy will certainly suffer a serious blow if the US imposes sanctions on Iraq for proposing the departure of the US troops. The new sanctions may force the Iraqi government to cave in, but will place the stationed American troops in the country in more severities.

More importantly, ever since the US military invaded Iraq in 2003, arguments about the necessity of this war and the stationing of US troops have never stopped. Some in the US have been claiming that the role of the US troops in Iraq have deteriorated from the security defender of the Middle East to "chicken ribs" that are next to nothing in terms of its contribution to America’s national security, and it is advisable to withdraw the US troops at an early date.

 

 

Related News

back