Hasn’t Iraq already made it pretty clear they are not our friends??
No.
Iraq is buying 80 percent of its weapons from the US.
US is still training the IA.
If the Russian deal goes through, it will be 10-20 percent compared to ongoing US arms deals.
The only thing Iraq did was insist that we depart per our agreement - we did.
Given the level of nationalism there - it would be inconceivable for any Iraqi politician to do otherwise.
Would the US agree to allow foreign troops to occupy US?
Would any US politician ever propose that and get re-elected?
What Iraq is - is weak. Every country bordering them out guns them in every category of weapons except infantry. And both Turkey and Iran also outnumber them in Infantry.
Iraq has signed no mutual defense treaties - they are neutrals officially without the military capacity to win or even give a good fight against any of the countries bordering.
You would be quiet and very polite too - if you were bordered by Iran, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Saudi, and Kuwait with Kuwait [the weakest] having more tanks and artillery than you do, not to mention having an air force which Iraq doesn’t really have.
E.G. Kuwait has over 70 F/A-18s - Iraq has yet to receive a single jet.
Our fight against the Iraqi Army ended in 2003.
In the 9 years we occupied Iraq, after May 2003, there were fewer than 8 incidents of Iraqi Army shooting at US troops.
By comparison, in Afghanistan we have had as many Green-on-Blue incidents in the last year.
The IA served alongside US against the extremists...
You are aware that the US death rate [all causes] in Iraq dropped below the USMC death rate for motorcycle accidents after 2008? It was safer to be deployed to Iraq than it was to be stationed in CONUS throughout the occupation.
After 2008, deaths in Iraq [all sides/all causes] dropped below the murder rate in Venesuala - VE only has 2/3rds the population of Iraq but, more murders occur there than deaths in Iraq to all causes...
The reason the USMC started agitating to leave Iraq and go to Afghanistan in 2008 was because they are assault troops and the CMC felt they were wasting their time there.
The only reason we stayed as long as we did was we wanted to leave a tripwire to keep Iran from invading since the IA was and remains unprepared for conventional war. We left because Obama didn’t want US there.
IMoD planned on 2020 as the date they would be prepared to effectively defend Iraq - 2012 was US politics...