Considering nearly everyone who was for it, now claims they where against it.

32 comments

  1. There’s less than 3000 troops currently deployed to Iraq.

    The vast majority of their role is to help train the Iraqi military.

    We do this for hundreds of countries across the globe, I’m not sure why Iraq is different right now.

  2. We did leave, in 2021. We have about 2500 people there now in a training and advisory role to their security forces. If Iraq wants them out, I’d tend to think we’d grant that wish.

  3. There are very few troops remaining in Iraq. Plus the country is a stable democracy now. They don’t do much else other than train the military.

  4. Based on your comment I am confident you don’t understand what portion of our military is still there, nor what they are doing. 

    Par for the reddit course, really. 

  5. We did leave Iraq. Then we came back when the Iraqi government invited us back.

    For all the noise about kicking us out:

    1. The non-binding resolutions, statements, things that have no actual method of moving ahead, the Iraqi Parliament has passed several of these.
    2. The last time the Iraqi parliament was to sit to actually set up the methods to kick us out failed to have enough people show up to actually accomplish quorum.

    Mixed messages and stuff.

    Loosely the US presence in Iraq is very small and serves as a pretty strong check on Iranian and ISIS ambitions, and the fuckery that followed the last US withdrawal and led to ISIS taking over a good chunk of Iraq. If we’re opposed to what Iran wants to do, ISIS coming back, and arguably we have an interest in non-Shia elements in Iraq getting a fair shake, it’s a worthwhile mission.

  8. U.S. forces currently in Iraq are mostly anti-ISIL forces and training bases for the Iraqi military. The U.S. military left Iraq originally in 2011 and came back in 2014 at behest of the Iraqi government to reestablish Baghdad’s control of the ISIL-occupied north & to support Kurdish and Syrian Opposition forces, after 2021 though we’ve dramatically reduced our presence and shifted operations in the Middle East towards Jordan and Qatar.

  9. We never should have gone, and yes we should pull out the remaining troops from Iraq and Syria.

  11. It depends on your worldview.

    I personally find it concerning that we are still in a random country halfway around the word where our troops are under constant danger of being attacked by local militants and Iranian-proxies (see recent deadly attack in far east Jordan).

    It kinda seems to me like we are more just too proud to pull out completely.

    BUT, it is also very likely there is an actual reason we are there in country which I am not educated on.

    Also, I would like to push back on the notion that the US’s foreign policy is to install democracy around the world (by force if needed) and that the intentions are mostly noble and pure. We as a country are very fond of backing harsh autocrats and squashing democracy whenever it is inconvenient for us (see our alliance with Saudi Arabia, our disinterest in Palestinian rights within the Israeli system, and the current mess that is going on in Haiti). Now that doesn’t mean that our actions are not sensible or the correct thing to do, but all the “freedom fighter” rhetoric really annoys me since there is plenty of evidence to go against that being a core tenant of US foreign policy.

    So to answer this question, I would first like to be educated on the actual reason why our troops are still in the region, and the most likely outcomes of what would happen if our troops stayed vs if they left (and different ways of leaving). If the benefits still outweighed the costs for American interests, I would say to keep them in. If not, I would want them out in the least bad way possible.

    Tldr: I do not possess the necessary information to have a worthwhile opinion, but if the benefits outweighed the costs for us, then obviously we should stay in. If not, we should leave. Also, the idea of the US as the “protector and cultivator of democracy abroad” is silly beyond the realms of rhetoric.

  16. I’m sick and fucking tired of Americans believing we know better than our government. Does our govt take questionable actions? Yes. Does our govt do enough for it’s people? Likely not. But holy fuck let’s not pretend like civilians see the whole picture on every single political issue. For the most part, our politicians are highly educated people, who are informed by *the most* educated subject matter experts. Some distrust of our political system is valid but we’ve gone way overboard.

    The situation with tik tok is a great example. Might our politicians be acting selfishly? Sure. Do they have a shitload more information about how China might be leveraging the app against our country? Certainly.

    If our government deems it necessary for us to be in Iraq, then fine. Our role as citizens of this country is to ask questions of those in power, vote for people who are trustworthy and intelligent, and hold people accountable when they fall short. Too often we skip right to holding people accountable, without ever asking questions.

  17. All US troops should be out of Iraq, unless the Iraqi government wants them to have a base there. Even still it might be best to leave.

  19. Ummm. I am terrible at geography but even I know that the US and Iraq are in completely different parts of the world and countries can’t travel and visit other countries

  20. We left Iraq, in a combat capacity, in 2012. I know that quite well. . .I was in the Army at the time and was scheduled to combat deploy to Iraq, but that deployment was cancelled because of the end of the Iraq War.

    There’s only a token presence there now, not in a combat role. We have more troops in a lot of other allied nations (like Germany or South Korea) than we do in Iraq.

    Removing the relative handful of troops in Iraq now would just be a political stunt that wouldn’t serve US defense interests or the interests of our allies.

  21. No, and the troops shouldn’t have been pulled out from 2011-2014, allowing the ISIS “JV team” to flourish either. They should negotiate permanent/99-year leases for airbases.

  22. I was for invading Iraq and while I no longer believe that was the best course of action, I’ve never denied being for it at the time.

    That being said I think pulling the remaining troops we have out of Iraq would be a bad decision that would only embolden ISIS, Iran and the Shia Militant Groups tied to Iran that are looking to undermine the Iraqi government and make them a puppet of Iran.

  23. No, if we did they would do horrible things to the Kurds

    We’ve already allied then abandoned the Kurds in many other countries it’s shameful and proves we are a terrible ally, I’d like to repair that image

  24. We did back in 2011. Obviously some stuff happened afterwards that lead to them changing their mind.

    If the Iraqi government actually goes through the legal process of revoking our status of forces agreement we’ll leave again. But until then, we’ll stay.

  25. That doesn’t seem like it would be helpful to our strategic geopolitical interests.

  26. Yeah I feel like we have to stay there.. considering we kinda leveled the place to the ground.. I would imagine we have some rebuilding to do.

  28. If we decoupled from Israel and offered some humanitarian aid and development aid to the Palestinians as an olive branch, we’d have a much better time in that part of the world.

  30. We’ve already left Iraq. What remains should remain to ensure stability and to remind the terrorists that we’re not far.

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