We outnumbered Iraq in pretty much every aspect too yet here we are and there we aren’t. The Iraqi fighters left in Iraq are all hard core combat veterans with the lessons of war fresh in their minds which means each of them is worth 3 or more regular soldiers. I think they could handle any single country that attempted to place boots on their soil.
1. Unlike the US, Iran don’t give a shit about casualties. We lost less than 4500 in 9 years. In 1986, Iran lost 50,000 KIA in 3 months.
2. Iraq is not battle hardened - what they have been involved in is called LOW INTENSITY CONFLICT. LIC doesn’t win if your enemy is willing to stay the course. By the way, the Iraqi death rate to all causes never exceeded the murder rate in Venesuala or the per capa murder rate of any major US city.
3. We invaded Iraq with 5 divisions vs Iraq’s 23. At no time did the US have ground forces larger than Iraq. The Iraqi Army decided not to fight in 2003.
4. Our departure was pure political. We never had a casualty rate high enough to make the top 10 list of what kills US military. Vietnam was 10x the annual KIAs. Korea was 30x. WWII was 100x. We lost more KIA in the last 9 hours of WWI [after the armistice was signed] than in the 9 YEARS in Iraq.
5. Iraq is dead meat if any of its neighbors invade. The ME politicians don’t have anti-war protestors to appease and do not have to worry about an anti-war vote...