Staying is no longer “logical.” A report calls for a complete withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.

Staying is no longer “logical.” A report calls for a complete withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.

2025-09-22 10:25

Shafaq News – Special Translation
Calls have been renewed within the United States to withdraw the remaining American troops still in Iraq, following the implementation of the redeployment and drawdown process. The American website “Stars and Stripes,” which specializes in military affairs, believes that the time has come for this step, as the costs are not worth the effort to limit Iranian influence. There are no longer any valid reasons to keep troops in Iraq, and this endless war must be avoided.

According to the American report , translated by Shafaq News Agency, the United States succeeded in reaching the September 15 deadline to change the status of American forces in Iraq, within the framework of the agreement approved by the Joe Biden administration last year. US forces withdrew from Ain al-Assad Air Base and Baghdad Airport, and some of the 2,500 troops left Iraq completely, while the rest of the forces moved to the Kurdistan Region and to Syria .

However, after stating that the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq was a “good thing,” the report found that the big question was, “Why are any US forces remaining at all?” It noted that talk of the importance of remaining in Iraq in anticipation of a resurgence of ISIS was acceptable 10 years ago, but is no longer so, as what remains of ISIS can be dealt with by other parties.

While noting that the United States has paid a heavy price for maintaining its forces in Iraq and Syria, having been fired upon at least 170 times since 2023, he concluded by saying that the time has come for President Donald Trump to use the current transition period to withdraw all US forces from Iraq and return home.

The report noted that with the collapse of the ISIS “caliphate” in 2019, ISIS’s territorial control over large swaths of northern Iraq and Syria has evaporated. Consequently, the strategic justification for the US military presence has been lost, both in Iraq itself and in Europe, where its attacks have ended since 2017. It has also been lost in Syria, where the group has not directly attacked Americans, further evidence of its weakness.

The report continued, “ISIS has carried out or attempted to carry out global attacks in recent years, but these were launched from Afghanistan, not Syria, and operated independently of ISIS in Syria and Iraq. While there have been lone wolf attacks in the United States inspired by ISIS propaganda, ISIS in Syria and Iraq had no prior knowledge of or planning of these attacks.”

The report found that ISIS in Syria and Iraq has become so weak that other parties are able to deal with it without the assistance of US forces on the ground. There are many other actors capable of helping shoulder this burden, starting with Iraq itself, where the Iraqi government is more popular than it has been in more than a decade and is generally free of the sectarian divisions that gave ISIS the political space to emerge.

He also added that the Iraqi army is the sixth most powerful in the Middle East and already bears almost the entire burden of dealing with ISIS sleeper cells inside Iraq, noting that “because of this, it is obvious that the Iraqi president and prime minister want to end the US military presence, as they realize that Iraq is capable of doing so on its own.”

The report stated that, in addition to the Iraqi government and security forces, the Kurdish Peshmerga forces remain a powerful and highly motivated force against ISIS in northern Iraq.

The report stated that ISIS had the element of surprise in 2014, but that this would no longer apply if the group were to re-emerge, as there is a broad coalition of local actors ready to act quickly.

In addition, the report indicated that the US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, launched from the US state of Missouri last June, directly into Iran, demonstrate that the United States does not need a military presence in the theater of operations to achieve most of its interests in the Middle East, including in Iraq .

The report concluded by stating that the US presence in Iraq is not free, explaining that since 2014, US casualties have been relatively low, but injuries to US service members remain high, particularly from strikes on US bases, where US forces appear to be sitting ducks.

Therefore, the report deemed these costs not worth the cost of limiting Iranian influence in Iraq, which is mostly achieved through proxy groups within the country. It continued, “Iran’s recent weakening regional position has led to a decline in Iranian influence over proxies and has pushed the Iraqi government to impose greater control over them.”

The report considered it unclear that the small contingent of US troops would be able to do much to curb the influence of the approximately 230,000 armed “proxies.” It added that US forces often appear to be targets of attacks by “proxy” forces, which is one of the reasons why former President Joe Biden negotiated a new status of forces agreement with Iraq last year .

The report concluded that the truth is that there are no longer any good reasons to keep US forces in Iraq, and Trump now has an opportunity to make a decisive and historic shift away from endless war, in the interest of US national security .

shafaq.com