{UAH} THE ENEMY OF INTERNATIONAL PEACE IS GETTING OUT OF IRAQ

US will draw down troops in Iraq from 5,200 to 3,000 this month, CENTCOM confirms

by Abraham Mahshie, Defense Reporter

 

September 09, 2020 10:18 AM

 

U.S. Central Command’s Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie announced Wednesday that the United States will fulfill a President Trump promise and withdraw about half of the remaining American soldiers in Iraq.

The drawdown will still allow the U.S. to help fight the Islamic State, he said.

“This reduced footprint allows us to continue advising and assisting our Iraqi partners in rooting out the final remnants of ISIS in Iraq and ensuring its enduring defeat,” McKenzie said in a speech in Iraq with the Iraqi minister of defense in attendance.

McKenzie had been praising the development of the 250,000-strong Iraqi security forces for months.

“We are continuing to expand on our partner capacity programs that enable Iraqi forces and allow us to reduce our footprint in Iraq,” he added. “The U.S. decision is a clear demonstration of our continued commitment to the ultimate goal, which is an Iraqi security force that is capable of preventing an ISIS resurgence and of securing Iraq’s sovereignty without external assistance.”

A troop reduction announcement had been expected for months as the U.S. and Iraq engaged in status of forces negotiations to determine a future American presence in the country.

Today’s announcement reveals the status of those negotiations and a level of confidence in the ISF that McKenzie in June said was “good enough” to quash remaining terrorists in Iraq.

McKenzie in August warned that the Islamic State is still present in Syria, where the U.S. retains a small troop presence east of the Euphrates River.

In the Russia-controlled west, the top American commander in the region warned recently: “The conditions are as bad or worse than those that spawned the original rise of ISIS.”

EM         -> { Trump for 2020 }

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