The Withdrawal That Wasn't

Much of what the American forces are doing in Iraq is to support operations in Syria, which also will not see much of a change. There are roughly 900 U.S. troops in Syria, where they train local Kurdish forces and target ISIS cells there.

JONATHAN LORD of the Center for a New American Security said that U.S. troops in Iraq are largely the “logistical tail that supports what we’re doing in Syria,” and “the old train and equip mission of just a few years ago and from early on in the ISIS fight, that’s largely a vestige of the past, we have not been doing that for some time.”

The announcement of a timeline for the U.S. taking on a new role in Iraq — but not pulling out troops as some Iraqi officials have suggested in recent weeks — will still likely help the Iraqi government of Prime Minister MOHAMMED SHIA AL-SUDANI domestically. Iranian-backed militias in Iraq “have used the conflict in Gaza as a way … to try and push for U.S. expulsion from Iraq,” Lord said. “There’s a benefit politically to having a degree of ambiguity about what that future holds for the U.S. presence” there.

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