U.S. Withdrawal? Only in Name, Nothing to Change

 Iraqi Prime Minister in Washington

BAGHDAD (KI) -- Iraq’s prime minister is in Washington to demand that President Biden withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq, announcing to Iraqi media that the visit would “put an end to the presence of combat forces.”
American officials say the United States is likely to oblige the request from Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, setting a deadline to be announced on Monday for the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces by the end of the year.
Pentagon and other administration officials say they will achieve this by removing a small but unspecified number of the 2,500 American forces currently stationed in Iraq, and by reclassifying on paper the roles of other forces.
Al-Kadhimi will have a political trophy to take home to satisfy anti-American factions in Iraq and the U.S. military presence will remain, the New York Times summed up the situation.
According to the paper, al-Kadhimi’s government quietly favors the roughly 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq staying in their current form. But the U.S. assassination of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top anti-terror commander, along with a senior Iraqi security official and eight others in an American drone strike in 2020, has made the United States’ current presence politically impossible, and politically undesirable in the United States. After the U.S. drone strike, Iraq’s Parliament demanded the government expel U.S. forces — a motion that was nonbinding but sent a strong message to any politician who wanted to stay in power, including the prime minister, the Times wrote.
The U.S. has also repeatedly attacked Iraq’s popular militia forces

which are the most important hurdle to the resurrection of terrorist groups such as Daesh in Iraq.
Most of Iraq’s paramilitary units were formed in 2014 in response to a call by the country’s most revered Shia cleric for Iraqis to mobilize against Daesh Those militias were later absorbed into Iraq’s official security forces but the U.S. has repeatedly blamed them for the persistent attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq.
Monday’s announcement comes as the Pentagon nears the end of its withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, ending a 20-year invasion of the country, even as the Taliban have captured dozens of districts around the country in a military offensive.
In Washington on Friday, Pentagon officials said they expected the troop levels in Iraq to remain at their current level of about 2,500, and that the role of some U.S. forces would be redefined.
But while giving al-Kadhimi temporary political cover, a reclassification of U.S. forces rather than a drawdown likely won’t satisfy the Iraqis and political parties calling for a withdrawal of all troops, Iraqi officials say.
“Changing their name from combat forces to trainers and advisers — we consider it as an attempt at deception,” said Muhammad al-Rubai’e, political spokesman for Asaib Ahl al-Haq, which maintains 16 seats in the Iraqi parliament.

‘Footage of U.S. Choppers Transferring Daesh’

A leader of anti-terror Hashd al-Sha’ab group said thermal cameras installed in Iraq’s central province of Salahuddin recorded U.S. military helicopters transferring Daesh terrorists to various locations across the country.
“The United States is not serious about withdrawing its troops from Iraq. The presence of U.S. forces shows that previous statements made by Iraqi authorities and their American counterparts are false and misleading,” Qassem al-Kuraiti told Al-Ahad television on Saturday.
“Thermal cameras in Salahuddin have captured how Daesh elements are being transferred across Iraq by U.S. helicopters.”
Kuraiti touched on Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein’s recent statements about the need for U.S. forces in Iraq, noting that it is up to the Iraqi nation to decide whether American troops should stay or be expelled.
“Iraq does not need the presence of foreign forces on its soil. Security forces and Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters are able to protect the country,” the Hashd leader emphasized.