Iraqis Fear That Trump’s America Will Depart Once and For All

A month into his second term, President Trump’s disruptive approach to U.S. foreign policy is causing anxiety among U.S. partners, including Iraq. For more than twenty years, America has invested significant blood and treasure there. Today, some 2,500 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, and Washington provided $430 million in military and economic assistance just last year. During his first term, Trump repeatedly pledged to end America’s “forever wars.” He was not successful but seems more determined to bring troops home in his second term. With the Biden administration’s 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, Iraq is now the grandfather of U.S. military deployments, and Iraqis fear they are next on the retrenchment shortlist. During a recent trip to Baghdad, I met with a series of senior Iraqi officials, and they were almost uniformly worried despite the current period of relative calm...

Read the full article on the National Interest website.