Why Shouldn't ALL Our Troops Immediately Leave Iraq?

[mark46]

The Iraqi government and PM have asked us to leave.

 

[Nithavela]

The Iraqi government and PM have asked us to leave.

They need to protect the USAs oil and be ready to attack Iran.

 

[jasonMalloy1999]

They need to protect the USAs oil and be ready to attack Iran.

or they can grrow up and watch netflix instead

 

[LoveOurNeighbor]

The Iraqi government and PM have asked us to leave.

We absolutely should...Otherwise we are just being belligerent and disrespectful.

 

[Vylo]

Well, I suppose since Iraq voted for us to leave, that is probably the best move. Just hope we don't get another ISIS problem.

 

[HTacianas]

The Iraqi government and PM have asked us to leave.

Maybe the US should leave Iraq. Last time it gave rise to the Islamic State. Maybe next time it will again. If the US stayed out, IS, backed by the Saudis, could then fight it out with Iran for control of the entire region. Given enough time Iran could fully develop nuclear weapons to use against the Saudis and we could watch them all destroy each other.

 

[jasonMalloy1999]

whos ready for ww3 lads eh lets get ready to go home sooner woop

 

[Monksailor]

It seems that someone is forgetting other more pertinent history: 9/11. The reason USA has bases in other countries is to try to keep the front lines and carnage out of American's back yards and schools and churches and such.

 

[usexpat97]

It is Iraq's country, and Iraq told them to leave. No other reason is required. It should already be getting done.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

If the point of the invasion of Iraq was to establish a democratic regime and the people of Iraq through their representatives have made it clear the USA is no longer welcome there, the USA staying there would seem like a contradiction. Unless the USA is engaged in empire building like it's opponents say what reason do they truly have to deny the democratic will of the Iraqi people?

People in the USA also have to understand that if they leave Iraq and these regions completely they might open themselves up to more terrorist attacks that are otherwise directed at American troops in these countries. There is always a risk of Iran or some other country gaining hegemony over the region and this could have risks as well.

In my view it is worth the risk of the USA to leave the region to itself, support the groups and interests it wants to gain power and leave it at that.

 

[Vylo]

It is Iraq's country, and Iraq told them to leave. No other reason is required. It should already be getting done.

This is a rare event where what is best for Trump is also best for the nation. He can crow about "bringing troops home", etc, and we get to have eliminated a terrorist and not lose any lives in retaliation.

 

[essentialsaltes]

According to Trump, Iraq has to pay for that airbase we built.

 

[jasonMalloy1999]

According to Trump, Iraq has to pay for that airbase we built.

blessings i love that pic lol

 

[wing2000]

It seems that someone is forgetting other more pertinent history: 9/11. The reason USA has bases in other countries is to try to keep the front lines and carnage out of American's back yards and schools and churches and such.

...yea, that theory hasn't help up well to history. Take a look at terrorism attacks within the US since 2001...and who carried them out. Ideology is not bound by geography.

 

[SoldierOfTheKing]

The Iraqi government and PM have asked us to leave.

Assad never gave the US permission to have troops is Syria in the first place

 

[dzheremi]

"We" should've left a long time ago. Support the (Assyrian/Syriac defense militias) Dwekh Nawsha and the Kurds allied with them in Iraq, and the Sutoro and the Kurds in Rojava allied with them in Syria, and anyone else who is actually worth supporting. We've never been able to successfully overthrow anyone in a way that didn't completely blow up in our faces later on, and the time it takes for that to happen has tended to get shorter as time has worn on (compare the ~ 27 year delay between the overthrow of Mosaddegh in 1953 and the hostage crisis of 1979-80 to the approximately 7 years between the death of Saddam Hussein and the rise of ISIS as an actual threat to the entire country of Iraq under Al Baghdadi in 2013).

Iran's government sucks, but does anyone here want to die or have their kids or neighbors or whoever die fighting Iran for nebulous and frankly poorly thought-out ideas like "regime change"? Does anyone think, given the experience we've very recently had in Iraq (and before that in many other places), that what will come after the Iranian regime if we topple it will be better, or even particularly democratic in any fashion that won't be a bigger threat to the West and America in particular than Iran is now? We should've learned from Egypt (something we didn't even engineer, for once!) that when countries that lack the underpinnings of a truly pluralistic, democratic society try to make one by simply pulling down what's there now, what they end up with is often much worse than the leader they got rid of...and in Egypt's case, they actually wanted to do that in the first place!

I could think of worse things than letting Iran 'take over' Iraq when the alternative is stuff like this. It's not like Iraq was this great ally before now, and as far as ISIS coming back...yeah, they probably will, but you know who's proven more effective at fighting ISIS than we have? Iran, the Syrian government (yes, the bad one run by the secular strongman Bashar; not the bad one squabbled over by three dozen jihadist groups full of foreign Islamists), and Russia. Let them do it.

 

[TLK Valentine]

According to Trump, Iraq has to pay for that airbase we built.

Like a proper landlord, let Donald go to Iraq and collect the check himself.

 

[Desk trauma]

It seems that someone is forgetting other more pertinent history: 9/11. The reason USA has bases in other countries is to try to keep the front lines and carnage out of American's back yards and schools and churches and such.

The number of contradictory ideas that must be held simultaneously for this to make sense...

 

[grasping the after wind]

Seems to me that we had no business going there and no business staying. US forces and weaponry should be removed from not only Iraq but every other country in the world that is not the United States of America. Why is the US government , no matter which party or which chief executive is in place, so determined to protect the interests of other countries in direct contradiction to the US' own self interest? If Trump truly believed in America first, he would not pay out one American cent or one American life for the benefit of the interests of other countries' governments.

 

[Petros2015]

Maybe we could pull all the little troops out and just put 1 Giant Big one in instead?