Washington Has 'No Plans' to Withdraw From Iraq

As clamor grows in Iraq to see US troops leave the country, the Pentagon says it remains in control of several military bases 'at the invitation' of Baghdad

Pentagon press secretary General Patrick Ryder confirmed on 8 January that the US is not planning to withdraw any of its troops from Iraq, despite claims to the contrary made last week by the government in Baghdad.

"Right now, I'm not aware of any plans [for a withdrawal]. We continue to remain very focused on the defeat ISIS mission," Ryder told reporters, adding that about 2,500 US troops remain in Iraq “at the invitation” of the government.

...Following the January 2020 assassination of Iranian anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani and PMU deputy leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Iraqi parliament voted on a law to withdraw permission for the US to operate on Iraqi soil.

US troops first entered Iraq in 2003 to topple the government of Saddam Hussein under false pretenses. Washington initially withdrew its forces in 2011 when the White House failed to secure a new Status of Forces (SOFA) agreement with former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

However, US troops returned to the Ain al-Asad base under the pretext of training Iraqis to fight ISIS six months after the extremist group invaded and occupied Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, in June 2014. In 2021, Washington and Baghdad reached an agreement for the withdrawal of combat troops from the country; however, this was eventually modified to allow thousands of US soldiers to remain in an “advisory role.”

Since the start of the war in Gaza, US bases in Iraq and Syria have been bombed over 100 times by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.

🔗Source: The Cradle

Related: The End of The PetroDollar, The Rise of BRICS is Here

..Back in March of 2023, seeing the writing on the wall, Iraq also announced the intention to trade with China using the Yuan instead of the dollar, following a trend of other countries dropping the dollar in Bilateral trade deals.

2/22/23 — Iraq to Allow Trade With China in Yuan - State Media

Having been stonewalled and denied on waiver for sanctions to continue importing gasoline from Iran, Iraq had circumnavigated the sanctions through an oil-for-gasoline barter deal.

7/5/23 — Iraq Wants to Drop Dollar in Iran Trade to ‘Relieve US Pressure’: Report..

7/13/23 — Iraqi Officials Are Defending a Barter Deal With Iran, Say It Doesn’t Violate US Sanctions on Tehran

...7/19/23 - US Issues New Sanctions Waiver Claiming to ‘Help’ Iraq Pay For Iranian Gas

…only to sanction 14 Iraqi banks the next day.

7/20/23 — US Bans 14 Iraqi Banks in Crackdown on Iran Dollar Trade, Wall Street Journal Reports

These sanctions on Iraqi banks plays into the same dynamic seen with the US targeting individual banks in Turkey and the UAE with sanctions, after the nation’s ignored the US’s threats I highlighted in my March 2022 series. The effect is a middle grounds, where the countries are having to splinter their economy between the two axes.

The real question is why should the sovereign country of Iraq — whose economic insecurity the US already bears large responsibility for, having destroyed the country 2 decades ago based off fabricated “intelligence” of WMDs[lies] — why should Iraq have to beg the US permission to conduct business with its neighbor that is in its own interest?

Somewhere in the answer to that question, is the prime reason for why BRICS is rising.

...7/25/23 — Washington Names Itself ‘Custodian’ of Iraqi Debt Payments to Iran via Oman

And thus, its no wonder the global south is breaking away from US control, when it so often overrides their own interests[and sovereignty].

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