Why settle for just one international retreat under fire?
Whether the United States should have withdrawn earlier from Afghanistan and Iraq is one thing, but running away while under fire is not a good look.
And yet despite the disaster in Afghanistan, Biden is preparing to repeat the experiment.
Iranian-backed militia strikes on U.S. positions in Iraq have wounded and killed American soldiers. Under pressure, the Biden administration resumed responding with air strikes. The Iranian-backed militias they were targeting are among those backed and funded by the Shiite Iran-backed regime in Baghdad.
And so Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani called for American forces to leave the country.
“Let’s agree on a time frame (for the coalition’s exit) that is, honestly, quick, so that they don’t remain long and the attacks keep happening,” he urged.
Biden is rushing to comply.
Washington will begin talks with Baghdad to end a U.S.-led international military coalition in the country while determining the best ways to strengthen relations, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Thursday.
Working group meetings of the U.S.-Iraq Higher Military Commission will start in the coming days, beginning the process that both countries agreed to during talks in Washington last summer.
The meetings aim to ensure the transition to “an enduring bilateral security partnership” between Washington and Baghdad, Austin said in the statement, adding that the process “reflects the deep U.S. commitment to regional stability and Iraqi sovereignty.”
The U.S. announced the talks in a letter to Iraq’s foreign minister on Wednesday, Reuters first reported. Washington originally insisted that Iran-backed Iraqi militant groups end their attacks on U.S. troops in the country as a condition of beginning the talks, but have since backed down.
Of course, they have.
Withdrawing troops while leaving an American diplomatic presence in Baghdad is just begging for another Afghanistan, but Secretary of State Blinken and the other State Department geniuses who did this in Kabul, are bound to want to remain.
What we actually should do (and should have done a while back) is get the hell out of Baghdad. It’s enemy territory.
The same goes for the Shiite government which is allied with Iran. We should remain and continue to work with the Kurds who have, by the standards of Muslims in the region, been fairly credible allies, and whom we have not done right by.
We should recognize Kurdish independence (which will infuriate all the right players, including Baghdad and Istanbul), buy Kurdish oil (despite all the money and lives spent, we have not actually benefited from Iraqi oil), possibly work with any Sunnis interested in working with us, but avoid any kind of military commitment. And this will tear apart a united Iraq. To which I can only say, good.
There should be no civilian presence in Baghdad or any territories under the control of Iranian militias.
The funny thing is that in one of his rare broken clock moments, when he was less out of it, Biden had proposed doing this and dividing Iraq into three. His actual plan was dumb and no one will agree to it. But it’s not our job to run Iraq. All we should be doing is working with allies and not enemies. Baghdad is an enemy.
We shouldn’t be in Baghdad, but neither should we be leaving under fire. The situation should never have been allowed to deteriorate. And now that it has, Biden has put on some air strikes for show while allowing Iran and the terrorists to claim victory.
Will they attack a US diplomatic presence in Baghdad once we’ve evacced, forcing yet another urgent evacuation?
I wouldn’t bet against it.
Sharon says
Whole Pentagon needs arrested if they allow this .
TREASON .he’s making Battalions of Armed Jihadists .
He’s going to leave all the weapons for the jihadists?
These are Backstabbing enemy Arming traitors
BOMB EVERYTHING FIRING AT YOU .
Stive says
Different take on bible prophesy. Dry up Euphrates is idiomatic expression to dry up power in Euphrates River valley. Pontoon bridges need no litteral dried up river.
Remember prince of Persia with a demon Daniel was told about? There are 4 demons bound in/by Euphrates. 4 nations bound or touch Euphrates. The 4 rulers hath the 4 demons. That’s why in 10 years of war, Iraq couldn’t push Iran from touching Euphrates at one small area as God won’t let the prophesy of 4 be undone.
Enter Nazi bush clan. Bush created the Road Map. Road map means Prepare The Way. Did that by destroying Iraq power.that was in the way for Iran forces to get to Israel. Saddam liked that idea but no Iran troops to move thru Iraq lest they eat Iraq on the way. Road map or prepare way for king’s of the east. The 4 demon ruled nations all have land east of Euphrates as king’s of the east. They demons are turkey Iran Syria Iraq. Euphrates is ancient divide of east and west.
America is japeth which is Israel’s final enemy. Japeth united with 5 Moslem states in total.
It’s all happening at breakneck speed.
America govt is setting up on purpose the destruction of both Israel and America. But Israel is to survive, damaged badly but survive as Jesus Christ returns to Jerusalem Israel.
joanofark06 says
Maybe you know this verse.
Zechariah 13: 8-9
8 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.
9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.
Westman says
The US proxy war in Ukraine is headed for a Ukraine defeat after draining much of the available heavy munitions of NATO and the US. Leaving Iraq is actually logical because:
With a huge number of foreign military bases, the US must consolidate to have the manpower and weaponry in safer places as a preparation for any war with an equal foe, such as Russia. This is an election year in which, if it appears Ukraine will obviously lose, the Biden admin may put US troops in Ukraine rather than admit to a colossal mis-judgement for both themselves and the NATO allies.
Afghanistan and Iraq are only the first bases to be withdrawn for consolidation. The US is running on borrowed money and much is needed to replace the heavy munitions and prepare for war.
Ray Jarman says
I can say from having worked at the Embassy in Baghdad, the embassy personnel will have to be withdrawn because it is indefensible. The Euphrates River borders the compound on one side and even though it is in what is called the Green Zone surrounds the rest of the compound, there is nothing to stop missiles and rockets being launched into the compound. In 2006 & 2007 when I was posted there, rockets were launched at us almost on a daily basis. I also do not have any faith in the building structure, especially the compound housing. It is a shame because the compound is very nice but with Biden at the helm, as Obumer stated, he will find a way to screw it up. Just look at Kabul.
I think that maybe Sec Def Austin should have remained in the hospital as things appeared to be less chaotic.
Ray Jarman says
I can say from having worked at the Embassy in Baghdad, the embassy personnel will have to be withdrawn because it is indefensible. The Euphrates River borders the compound on one side and even though it is in what is called the Green Zone surrounds the rest of the compound, there is nothing to stop missiles and rockets being launched into the compound. In 2006 & 2007 when I was posted there, rockets were launched at us almost on a daily basis. I also do not have any faith in the building structure, especially the compound housing. It is a shame because the compound is very nice but with Biden at the helm, as Obumer stated, he will find a way to screw it up. Just look at Kabul.
I think that maybe Sec Def Austin should have remained in the hospital as things appeared to be less chaotic.
Kristen says
Commitment to regional stability? Is that what the “adults” are calling this endless parade of debacles they’re creating? Are *any* of the incompetent charlatans in the Xiden-Hussein Regime even conscious, let alone aware of their abysmal and catastrophic failure at every turn?
Billy Corr says
If “we” recognize Kurdistan [Turkish plus Syrian plus Iraqi plus Iranian Kurdistan] and buy the oil, how will the Kurds export it? Though the Black Sea, closed off by the Turks?
In Erbil, years ago, I saw a map of Kurdistan Irridenta, complete with a short seacoast on the Mediterranean.
Will “we” help the Kurds to realize their dream of access to the Mediterranean? Should “we” include the Assyrians, too?
Mick says
Via the Kirkuk-Turkey line? For money the Sunni Turks and Kurds could bury their differences, including the flooding of Kurdish lands by the Ilyusu dam.
joanofark06 says
“possibly work with any Sunnis interested in working with us, but avoid any kind of military commitment.”
Well, that sounds like the OBiden government. To think that one branch of muslims are more friendly than the other. If they would only get it through their heads, that any muslim will kill you! They all read Satan’s “holy book”, the Quran, that has a hundred verses, that say to kill everyone that is not like them, or do not subscribe to their “religion”, of Islam. (How many people have been killed because they couldn’t quote one line from the quran, when asked to?)
A requirement to see if they would kill you, is to ask them, if they read the quran. If they don’t, their not a muslim. If they DO read it, RUN!