Top Donald Trump administration officials indicated today that US bases in Iraq would have little role in monitoring Iran-backed proxies after the president vowed in a TV interview that American troops would stay in the country to “watch” Iranian forces.
Iraqi political figures roundly criticized Trump in the wake of a Sunday interview on CBS’ "Face the Nation." President Barham Salih, a longstanding American ally, called the potential action “unacceptable” and insisted the United States hadn’t been granted permission by Baghdad to snoop on Iran.
Testifying before Congress today, just hours before Trump’s State of the Union address, US Central Command chief Joseph Votel said that the Pentagon’s mission focusing on the defeat of the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS) had not changed despite the administration’s focus on curtailing Iran’s use of Shiite proxy groups in the Middle East.
Iran because of its proximity to Iraq and because of a minority of dedicated killers in the Iraqi Shia community is a threat to Iraq's government, so you can't expect Iraqi leaders to openly embrace an American role in "watching" Iran.
But given the history of Iraq trying to deal with Iran's proximity and proxy killers from 2011 to 2014 without America (the emphasis on officer loyalty rather than competence hollowed out Iraq's security forces to the point that they collapsed when hit hard by ISIL), Iraq surely knows that it needs America to watch Iran.
So let's just leave our post-ISIL caliphate missions in Iraq unstated.
