US Forces Finally Withdraw from Iraq, a Victory for Iran
US forces are scheduled to withdraw from their final bases in Iraq by Wednesday at the latest. This withdrawal is being celebrated as a victory by Iran and its allies.
The US invaded Iraq in 2003, against the objections of the UN. US President George W. Bush and his ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, argued at the time that the aggression was necessary because Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein, was said to possess weapons of mass destruction—a claim that was later proven to be a falsehood.
US and allied aggression in Iraq killed at least 600,000 people, according to a Lancet survey, while additional deaths are estimated to reach one million. Approximately 4,500 Americans, mostly military personnel, died during more than two decades of warfare.
The US aggression also triggered the emergence of ISIS, whose members were initially former Iraqi military personnel in 2004. ISIS subsequently launched brutal killing campaigns across various Middle Eastern countries and carried out terrorist actions outside the region.
Reuters quotes Iraqi security experts who assess that this troop withdrawal—agreed upon in 2024 under the administration of President Joe Biden and implemented by the Donald Trump administration even amidst confrontation with Iran—could provide more freedom for Tehran and its influential allies, while also opening opportunities for other US enemies, including the Islamic State, to rise again.
“Iran will gain a strategic advantage from the departure of the coalition because it removes the military presence that for years has acted as a counterbalance to Tehran’s influence in Iraq,” said Jasim al-Bahadli, an Iraqi security analyst specialising in the study of pro-Iranian Shia armed groups.
He estimates that pro-Iranian militia groups will not only frame the departure as a victory for their movement but will also “seek to capitalise on this momentum to gain greater influence in security and political decision-making.”
Abu Mojtaba al-Yasiri, a commander in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq—an umbrella group overseeing various Iranian-backed armed factions—described the US troop withdrawal as a “historic victory for the Iraqi Islamic resistance groups and the dignified people of Iraq, as well as a crushing defeat for the American agenda.”
“On 30 September, we will celebrate the end of a dark chapter in Iraqi history and the failure of the occupying forces to impose their will upon our country,” he told Reuters. “Iraq has proven that its sovereignty cannot be guaranteed by foreign troops, but rather by the resistance and determination of its own people.”