Here We Go Again: US May Keep Troops in Iraq Even After Daesh Is Ousted
SputnikNews.com
05.05.2017
US and Iraqi government officials are discussing the possibility of maintaining a significant number of American ground forces in Iraq even after Daesh is defeated.
The US has maintained a powerful military presence in countries across the Middle East for years, and the Trump administration does not seem likely to reverse that trend.
There is a “general understanding on both sides that it would be in the long-term interests” of Washington and Baghdad to keep a “continued presence” within Iraq’s borders, a US official told Stars and Stripes.
Still, there has been no clarification as to what a “long-term US presence would look like,” and furthermore, “nothing has been finalized.”
An Iraqi official told Stars and Stripes about five bases near Mosul and the Iraq-Syria border where it would make the most sense to station US soldiers. By classifying the ground units as “advisers,” the US federal government could bypass the need to get congressional authority for the move, the official added.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi also seeks a “modest” number of Iraqi security forces near Mosul, where Baghdad’s forces have teamed with the US-led coalition since October of last year to oust Daesh.
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