Thanks for the reply.
My point is that I don’t believe Iraq will ever be one of our allies. And, I am wondering what contingency plans we have concerning Iraq if we decide to hit Iran. How do you think the U.S. will handle it?
OTOH, the situation of Turkey vs Syria vs the Iraqi Kurds is really interesting.
(I bet the Contractors in Iraq have some because they are going to be targeted for sure if we attack Iran.)
If Iraq joins the GCC - then they are de facto allies.
Plenty of US allies have rules about not having foreign troops stationed on their soil in peacetime.
E.G. Denmark, a long-time NATO ally has had that law for 4 decades. Which is why the F16 IPs we loaned them in late 80s/early 90s were officially AmEmb/ODC personnel despite spending all their time with the RDAF at Karup AB. Since the NATO personnel were under a Danish Flag Officer - they didn’t count as foreign troops any more than those assigned to Embassies.
Saudi is another example. Officially no foreign troops - All the US Military personnel are officially AmEmb, mostly MAAG.
This is a more common cover than most reallize for the host countries’ nationalistic political reasons - I didn’t reallize how common until I did a USDAO stint in Denmark with TAD/TDY time in Riyadh when some idiot decided he wanted a 19th province.
Look at it from their POV. Would you want large numbers of foreign personnel stationed in the US? Even with the relatively small numbers in the US for training, etc; we already have US fanatics claiming we are being occupied by NATO/UN, etc...
Don’t forget the Iranians or Iraqis vs Kurds.
All 4 of those countries really do not want an independent Kurdistan...
I get inquiries from contractor security firms about ISF periodically. In most cases, they are better dialed in as to what is going on in Iraq than the USG is. The Beltway Bandits have always lived in their own fantacy world.