Understanding the Tangled U.S.-Iraq Relationship
The U.S. and Iraq have gone to war twice in 30 years.
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and Iraq have gone to war twice in 30 years. The second time, American invaders deposed an oppressive regime led by strong-man Saddam Hussein. In the process, they unleashed long-suppressed sectarian divisions within Iraq and stoked the rise of Islamic State. To combat the militants, Iraqi officials invited U.S. troops to return to the country. They’ve worked closely with the U.S. to establish stability and security, even as they also aligned with neighboring Iran, America’s foe. After the U.S. assassinated top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Iraq on Jan. 2, Iraq’s leaders moved to force U.S. troops out.
1. How did Iraqis react to the killing?
Caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi called it a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. The targeting of Soleimani, who oversaw Iran’s foreign military operations, outraged politicians belonging to Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority, many of whom have close ties to Iran, which is also majority Shiite. Iraq’s parliament voted in a non-binding resolution to require the government to “end any foreign presence on Iraqi soil and prevent the use of Iraqi airspace, soil and water for any reason” by foreign troops. Abdul Mahdi’s office announced that he had asked the U.S. to begin working with Iraq on a mechanism for the withdrawal of the 5,000 American troops in the country.
2. What does the U.S. say?
U.S. President Donald Trump responded angrily to the parliament vote, threatening to sanction Iraq and demanding reimbursement for investments made in the country over the past two decades if the government insists on U.S. forces leaving. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he believes the Iraqi people and lawmakers still want the U.S. to maintain a presence in the country. A dis-invitation to U.S. troops might still allow for trainers to continue working with the Iraqi armed forces, and for U.S. jets to fly counter-Islamic State operations from Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
3. Why is the U.S. still in Iraq?
While Islamic State was driven from its last territorial foothold in mid-2019, the U.S. has kept troops in Iraq to prevent a resurgence of the group. In addition to supporting Iraqi operations against the militants, the U.S. leads a coalition combating Islamic State that engages more than 70 nations. The American presence also serves to counterbalance Iran’s powerful influence in the country, which it exerts through allied Iraqi politicians and militias. In addition, the U.S. aims to prevent a splintering of Iraq, which is made up of the Shiite majority that dominates the south, Sunni Muslims who prevail in the country’s center, and Kurds who live mostly in the northeast. U.S. officials worry that Iraq’s division along sectarian lines could fuel other conflicts in the Middle East.
4. What’s Iraq get out of the relationship?
Iraq looks to the U.S. for much-needed assistance to rebuild its military, train its police force and provide the stability necessary for reconstruction after decades of war and economic mismanagement. Only Afghanistan receives more foreign assistance annually from the U.S. than Iraq. U.S. lawmakers have appropriated more than $5.8 billion since 2014 to train and equip Iraqi forces. In the same period, the U.S. has provided $2.5 billion in humanitarian aid. It’s spent $365 million supporting recovery efforts in areas liberated from Islamic State.
5. What’s the history between the countries?
After Iraq’s independence in 1932, the two countries had checkered relations, with Iraq swinging from the American to the Soviet sphere during the Cold War. That didn’t stop the U.S. from supplying Iraq with logistical and intelligence assistance during its bloody war with Iran from 1980-1988; the U.S. worried that Iran would succeed in its goal of exporting the Islamic fundamentalism behind its 1979 revolution. Then, in 1990, Saddam Hussein’s regime invaded neighboring oil-rich Kuwait and announced its annexation to Iraq. Under President George H.W. Bush, the U.S. built a coalition of forces that ejected Iraqi forces from Kuwait the following year. At that time, American officials ruled out sending forces to Baghdad to topple Saddam’s regime out of concern it would entangle the U.S. in Iraq.
6. What led to the second war?
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. by the Afghanistan-based jihadist group al-Qaeda, the U.S., under President George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush’s son, accused the Iraqi regime of having links with al-Qaeda and of continuing to possess weapons of mass destruction, some of which had been discovered and destroyed by United Nations inspectors after the 1991 war. In 2003, the U.S. invaded Iraq and dismantled Saddam’s regime. It never proved the link to al-Qaeda or found any additional weapons of mass destruction.
7. What were the consequences of the invasion?
Ending Saddam’s regime, which had been dominated by Sunnis, facilitated the emergence of a government led by Shiites, which drew Iraq close to Iran. Disaffection among Iraqi Sunnis, resulting from their loss of power as well as the U.S. occupation, fed the rise of the radical Sunni group al-Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor to Islamic State. The group surged after the U.S. withdrew from Iraq in 2011 following a failure by the two governments to agree on terms for a continued stay. Islamic State honed its combat skills in the Syrian civil war that began the same year. In 2014, it began conquering Iraqi and Syrian cities and declared a caliphate, a state that claims dominion over Muslims. Taking advantage of the chaos, Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government seized territory in and around the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and in 2017 held a referendum endorsing independence. The national government dismissed the vote and dispatched troops to retake Kirkuk.
8. When did U.S. forces return to Iraq?
They returned in 2014 at the invitation of Iraq’s government after its army collapsed under the advance of Islamic State. The U.S.-led coalition combined airstrikes with support for local forces fighting the group on the ground. Islamic State’s surviving fighters have turned to insurgency tactics such as bombings, sniper attacks and targeted killings in both countries. In its campaign against the group, Iraq’s government has leaned heavily not just on the U.S.-led coalition but on Shiite militias, some of which are backed by Iran. The U.S. blamed one such militia for a December rocket attack on an Iraqi base housing American personnel and a siege of the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, acts that precipitated the U.S. killing of Soleimani.
The Reference Shelf
- Related QuickTakes on Qassem Soleimani’s legacy, U.S.-Iran tensions, Iran’s proxy network, Iran’s nuclear program and cyberwarfare.
- Reports by the Congressional Research Service on U.S.-Iraq ties.
- An International Crisis Group report examines how Iraq is caught in the crossfire between the U.S. and Iran.
To contact the reporter on this story: Glen Carey in Washington at gcarey8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Lisa Beyer
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