Does the withdrawal of US combat troops mean it’s ‘mission accomplished’ in Iraq?

Joe Biden has announced the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq by the end of 2021, bringing 18 years of conflict operations to a close.

Following a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi at the White House, the president told reporters that troops will remain “to continue to train, to assist, to help and to deal [with] Isis as it arises”, adding: “We’re not going to be, by the end of the year, in a combat zone.”

Al-Kadhimi responded that he would “like to thank the American people on behalf of all Iraq’s people”, saying: “Today our nation is stronger than ever. I’m looking forward to working with you, Mr President.”

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Landmark move

Some of the 2,500 US military personnel in Iraq at present will stay on after the withdrawal of combat troops and will continue to operate in a training and advisory capacity. However, an unspecified number of soldiers will leave following almost two decades of conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 4,500 soldiers since 2003.

The end of conflict operations marks “a landmark for the US”, The Times reports, ending “the invasion that led to the toppling of Saddam Hussein” and has more recently “battled Isis in the country and elsewhere in the Middle East”.

Biden has “vowed to continue counterterrorism efforts in the region”, the paper adds, with the move seen as another step in the president’s effort to shift “more attention to China as a long-term security challenge” and give Al-Kadhimi “an opportunity to prove his administration is capable of providing effective security”.

Withdrawal from combat operations ��is largely symbolic”, The New York Times (NYT) says, as “US troops no longer accompany Iraqi forces hunting remaining pockets of Islamic State fighters”, instead providing behind the scenes support.

However, it does represent the White House’s desire to “dial down its involvement in long-term conflicts in the Middle East”, while also granting al-Kadhimi “a political trophy to take home to satisfy anti-American factions in Iraq”.

The US military focus in Iraq has in recent years “been dominated by helping defeat Isis militants” in the country and neighbouring Syria, Sky News reports, with a senior administration official telling the broadcaster that “nobody is going to declare mission accomplished”.

“The goal is the enduring defeat of Isis,” the official added, but “if you look to where we were, where we had Apache helicopters in combat, when we had US special forces doing regular operations, it’s a significant evolution.

“By the end of the year we think we’ll be in a good place to really formally move into an advisory and capacity-building role.”

Mission unaccomplished?

The end of conflict operations marks an official change in the US role in the country rather than an end to its involvement in Iraq.

As Middle East Eye notes, US troops have increasingly shifted towards training responsibilities in recent years and will remain on the ground to provide “advice, training and support”. In other words, the “withdrawal from Iraq will take place largely on paper”, the site suggests.

Unlike the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has quickly “become a fraught topic in Washington”, the decision to take boots off the ground in Iraq is “unlikely to cause the same headaches”, Foreign Policy says.

This is largely because “the announcement is unlikely, in practice, to remove many of the 2,500 US troops currently stationed there”, the magazine adds, and also because “US counter-terrorism co-operation will continue” uninterrupted, Sky News says.

Al-Kadhimi is “seen as friendly to the United States and has tried to check the power of Iran-aligned militias” operating in Iraq, The Guardian reports. His government did, however, condemn a US bombing raid “against Iran-aligned fighters along its border with Syria in late June, calling it a violation of Iraqi sovereignty”.

With an election scheduled to take place in Iraq in October, the troop removal may “allow some breathing room for al-Kadhimi” who has found himself “caught between both Washington and Tehran – and on the verge of losing balance”, Foreign Policy adds.

Having won election in May 2020, al-Kadhimi has to “placate a large pro-Iran element in parliament” who voted in favour of the expulsion of US troops following the deaths of Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Iranian General Qassem Suleimani in a January 2020 air strike by the Trump administration.

The prime minister has also faced “a series of devastating hospital fires” that “left dozens of people dead”, as well as “soaring coronavirus infections – adding fresh layers of frustration for the nation”, Al Jazeera says.

Looking ahead to polling day, “the ability to offer the Iraqi public a date for the end of the US combat presence could be a feather in his cap”, the broadcaster adds.