A HASTY withdrawal of Western forces would not be good for the citizens of Iraq. It would grant Soleimani a posthumous victory, handing Iraq into the unchallenged control of the Tehran regime, the Revolutionary Guard and its ruthless henchmen. Nor would a humiliating forced exit be good for the US and its allies in the fight against Islamic State.
The embers of the terror group still glow in lawless pockets of the country. The Iraqi army, partly trained by some 400 British instructors, is incomparably more effective than at the time of its ignominious retreat from Mosul in 2014, but it still struggles to assert authority.
Domestic critics of the Iraqi government of Adel Abdul Mahdi, protesting against the mismanagement of the state, will moreover be left at the mercy of Abdul Mahdi’s Iranian backers.
Iraq is a fractured country. But to dash for the emergency exit now would be to abandon all responsibility for a tumultuous region to three ambitious disruptors: Turkey, Russia and above all Iran.
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