With all the news today concentrating on what is happening in Afghanistan during and after the withdrawal of American and Allied troops, it is little wonder that the media has somewhat forgotten about the U.S. continued involvement in Iraq. By January 2021, the U.S. had reduced its presence to 2,500 troops in Iraq. However, as of March 2021, 11 U.S. soldiers had died in Iraq in 2020. Iraq is still a very unsafe place to operate, particularly because of Iran’s influence. Among countries where terrorist attacks are frequent, the number of terrorist attacks in 2019 in Iraq ranked fourth behind Afghanistan, Syria and India. Of course, in previous years, many of the terrorist attacks were carried out by the followers of the Islamic State. In April 2021, the U.S. Central Command stated that there were no plans for a total withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, citing continued threats posed by the Islamic State insurgency and Iran-backed militias. However, in July 2021, President Biden announced that he would end the U.S. combat mission in Iraq by the end of the year, although the U.S. will continue to train and advise the Iraqi military.
Earlier this month, Iraqis voted in parliamentary elections meant to herald sweeping change to a dysfunctional political system that has dragged the country through almost two decades of deprivation. Unfortunately, Iraqi politics is still dominated by the three sectarian groups, the majority Shiite population, the Sunnis and the Kurds in the northern region of Iraq. Critics believe that the U.S. shares some responsibility for the failure of governance in Iraq. After the 2003 invasion by coalition forces and with the country in the grip of a bloody sectarian civil war, the U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council established a system of sectarian apportionment, which continues to this day. This quota system divides cabinet roles and ministries and their resources between the ethno-sectarian parties. The results of the current election will likely once again be followed by months of negotiations between the main players. Meanwhile, Iran’s influence in Iraq’s government grows, and Tehran continues to strengthen the power of Shiite Iraqi militias it backs.
According to political analysts, the current parties in power — many backed by militias involved in attacks that killed some 600 demonstrators — appear once more to be poised to dominate. Sweeping anti-government protests had forced out Adil Abdul-Mahdi, then the allegedly incompetent prime minister, in May 2020. While this led officials to push the vote up by a year, Iraq’s system of dividing up government ministries among political parties along ethnic and sectarian lines will remain unchanged. Almost every major political faction has been implicated in corruption, a major factor in Iraq’s poor public services. Electricity in many provinces is provided only for two hours at a time. In the sweltering summers, there is no clean water. And millions of university graduates are without jobs. Unfortunately, given the current state of Iraq’s economy and political divisions, many young Iraqis say they don’t see much if any future for themselves in their country.
By October 2018, beginning with the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the ensuing occupation, insurgencies and civil war, 4,550 American service members and 3,793 military contractors had died. Although estimating war-related Iraqi deaths pose many challenges, we know that the number of violent civilian deaths has been in the hundreds of thousands and the amount of property damages due to the war, insurgencies and subsequent terrorist attacks — especially by the Islamic State — has cost Iraqis and Americans hundreds of millions of dollars. Up until the end of 2020, it is estimated that the Iraq War has cost the U.S. nearly 2 trillion in current U.S. dollars, much of it to pay military contractors. In the end, one has to seriously ask whether Congress or the American people got value for their investment in Iraq, in light of the tragic loss of American lives or the hundreds of millions of dollars paid out?
FROLITICKS 