How Trump got the US kicked out of Iraq

Kevin Drum:

I don’t think we should be in Iraq at all, let alone killing Iranian military leaders there. If we are going to stay in Iraq, this just makes things harder. Iraqi leaders, who have to run a country divided between Sunni tribes and pro-Iran Shiite militias, can’t afford to be seen tolerating this kind of thing. 

There’s already a lot of chatter that our attack will force Iraqi leaders to either put further restraints on us or else kick us out altogether.

It’s pretty obvious that Trump made this decision rather unexpectedly because he was pissed that his previous escalation didn’t work. 

All the reporting I’ve seen suggests that virtually no one else really wanted to kill Soleimani. It was on the list of options presented to Trump specifically to make the other options look more moderate.

A Talleyrandesque sort of devious statesman might—might—be able to handle the aftermath of this in a way that makes relative peace more likely. Unfortunately, Trump is an idiot who is doing this because he’s obsessed with Benghazi and wants to show his predecessor that, by God, a red line is a red line. He has no idea what he’ll do next.

Among other things, our war against Iran seems to be escalating largely at the behest of Israel and Saudi Arabia. Following the lead of either of those countries is a bad idea. Following their lead when they actually agree on something seems like a wildly bad idea.

Rob's comment:
This may be a blessing in disguise, since it gives US politicians a good excuse for getting out of Iraq altogether. Hey, Iraq kicked us out! 

Let Iraq and Iran work out their relationship and how to deal with ISIS and their fanatic Muslim populations. That may take generations. The US should only be concerned if/when they threaten our national security.

It should be remembered that Trump set these events in motion by getting the US out of the nuclear deal with Iran and ratcheting up sanctions on that country, which was completely unnecessary, since the nuke deal seemed to be working and some kind of detente with Iran seemed possible.