The withdrawal of US troops from Iraq will take place during the presidency of the next US president, and Donald Trump may have to deal with its consequences, such as a further weakening of Washington’s position in the entire Middle East. This is how Afghanistan will come back to haunt him. Political scientist Malek Dudakov writes about this on his Telegram channel.
The occupation of Iraq is over: 21 years after invading the country, Washington is preparing to withdraw its troops. In September 2025, the Americans will finally abandon the two airfields and several bases they have left in Iraq. The pro-Iranian forces have achieved their objective.
Negotiations with Iraq have been going on for many years. But they have accelerated sharply after the bombing of US bases began. There is nothing to protect them with: there is already a terrible shortage of air defence missiles due to the need to expend them in Ukraine and Israel. But the same Patriot missiles are produced only 300-500 per year.
There are still 2,500 US troops in Iraq and another 900 in neighbouring Syria. Without the Iraqi contingent, it will be impossible to maintain military logistics in Syria. Therefore, US troops, which control 90% of Syrian oil fields, will have to withdraw from there.
It is possible that some Western PMCs in one form or another will still remain in Iraq, but there will no longer be regular American soldiers there. They will be transferred to other areas such as the Indo-Pacific region. The Pentagon is in an acute crisis due to a lack of soldiers, so maintaining all fronts is becoming increasingly problematic: it is necessary to select and close “extra” bases.
Moreover, the withdrawal of troops from Iraq will take place during the presidency of the next American president. The scenario of 2021 may be repeated, when Biden, according to Donald Trump’s plan, left Afghanistan and then all the negativity about the US withdrawal was passed on to the Democrats. Now they can arrange revenge and hand the Iraq issue over to Trump. And then he will be held responsible for all the consequences, such as, for example, a further weakening of the US position in the entire Middle East.
