Iraq PM opens door to longer US troop presenceLARA JAKESREBECCA SANTANA
“As they put more forces in, that could allow us to decrease” the U.S. military’s workload there, he said. Esper is looking for ways to reduce the U.S. troop presence in Iraq so that some can be brought home to focus on longer-term challenges, particularly from China. Similarl...
presence in Iraq as a buffer against the country’s Shiite-dominated central government. “The (drawdown) is an abdication of responsibility by the coalition,” said Fahad al-Rashed, a member of the provincial council in Anbar province, which has a Sunni majority. He said he recognized that ...
"This is a message to those who doubt the government's decisions regarding the presence of American (forces in Iraq): There are rules and the promise of a withdrawal," al-Hadithi said. Some in Iraq's Sunni minority community view the U.S. presence in Iraq as a buffer against the count...
The United States plans to reduce its military force in Iraq from the current 5,200 to about 3,500 by November, U.S. officials said Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States plans to reduce its military force in Iraq from the current 5,200 to about 3,500 by November, U.S. officials said Friday. The cut would be in line with President Donald Trump's repeated call to bring troops home and h
Esper is looking for ways to reduce the U.S. troop presence in Iraq so that some can be brought home to focus on longer-term challenges, particularly from China. Similarly, he is consideringpulling some troops out of Africa. The U.S. now has about 5,000 troops in Iraq, continu...
Indeed, the Iraqi government wanted a 2010 deadline for withdrawal.Bush pushed for a delay until 2015 in part because he was afraid that agreeing to 2010 would make McCain look bad.The Iraqis were forced to accept 2011. There is even lesstolerance for a long term foreign troop presenceamong...
In the wake of the strike, joint US-Iraqi operations against ISIS were put on hold, and Iraq’s caretaker prime minister said a US troop withdrawal was the only way to “protect all those on Iraqi soil,” thoughthis week he saidthat decision would be up to the next government. ...
More to the point, even without a U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan, American authorities detected both plots and alerted their Russian and Iranian counterpartsin advance. Had the warningsbeen taken seriously— as they would have been by U.S. allies — those tragedies might have been prevented...