Poll of the Day > Jesus Christ, now the US is withdrawing from Iraq?

(+) Yeah! (+)

What the fuck guys. What is happening?

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Nothing, nothing will happen. Stop letting yourself get manipulated and hyped up by the media.

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https://www.npr.org/2020/01/06/794040457/u-s-informs-iraqi-government-about-repositioning-of-coalition-forces

Updated at 5:56 p.m. ET
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced on Monday that some forces are being repositioned inside Iraq, not leaving the country.

Two other U.S. officials told NPR some are going to Kuwait temporarily.

The troop movement signaled by heavy helicopter traffic out of a U.S. base in central Baghdad was coupled with confusion about a letter sent by the U.S. military to Iraqi officials. That letter said the movements were in response to the Iraqi call for U.S. forces to leave the country, and the letter implied a withdrawal was underway.

Late Monday Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters the letter was "poorly worded."

Esper also told reporters at the Pentagon an Iraqi Parliament vote on Sunday to expel the U.S. troops was nonbinding, and that there are no plans to leave Iraq yet.

The Pentagon press office underscored the message, saying in a tweet, "There has been no change in U.S. policy with regard to our force presence in Iraq. We continue to consult with the Iraqi government regarding the defeat-ISIS mission and efforts to support the Iraqi Security Forces."

A U.S. military official in Iraq told NPR the troops would be moved to "other, safer countries" while training missions were suspended. He added that most are coalition and NATO forces, not American.

A letter from Brig. Gen. William Seely to the director of the Iraqi joint operations task force, informed the Iraqi government that the U.S. would be "repositioning forces over the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement."

The military official said the operation involved several hundred troops, mostly coalition and NATO forces being moved from the main military base in Baghdad's Green Zone. The base had been a frequent target of rocket attacks.

Iraqi lawmakers passed a resolution on Sunday, calling for all foreign troops to leave the country.

NPR's Tom Bowman reported there are about 5,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, helping in the fight against ISIS there. But U.S. military officials said they would halt those efforts while bracing for retaliation from Iran.

The rising tensions stem from a U.S. drone strike that killed top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and several others last week. A move that Iran said was a violation of the country's sovereignty. Iran has vowed to avenge.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he hopes the Iraqi parliament will reconsider its decision.

Meanwhile, President Trump threatened Baghdad with sanctions if U.S. forces were required to leave the country.

This is a developing story. Some things reported by the media will later turn out to be wrong. We will focus on reports from officials, credible news outlets and reporters who are at the scene. We will update as the situation develops.

Dreaming_King posted...

Stop letting yourself get manipulated and hyped up by the media.

I mean, the armed forces themselves sent a letter to Iraq saying they were pulling out before walking it back and claiming that it was a draft that shouldn't have been sent (because no one does blazing incompetence quite like this administration). The media had nothing to do with that.

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Withdraw when threatened, attack when safe

Sounds right

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It's about time to pull out of Iraq. But if Iran has infiltrated Iraq, I'm not so sure if that's a good call.

Trump got tricked into this by intelligence agents that are against him. trump screwed himself and fell into a trap

OhhhJa posted...

Trump got tricked into this by intelligence agents that are against him. trump screwed himself and fell into a trap

LMAO

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we killed ISIS' number one enemy

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darkknight109 posted...

because no one does blazing incompetence quite like this administration

Except multiple previous administrations in quite a number of cases.

Most of human history is a litany of people fucking things up spectacularly. It's just getting harder and harder to cover things up in the modern digital age.

Fortunately, the modern digital age is also making it less and less likely that anyone will actually give a fuck, so it all sort of balances out.
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Have these politicians never played Risk?

We need to stop focusing so much on the Middle East, lock down Australia and New Zealand and build up troops in the Americas

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Mead posted...

lock down Australia

There's an interesting conspiracy theory that the destabilization of Australia, including a climate change denier PM, is a Chinese conspiracy to remove Australia as a threat in the event of a Western attack

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didn't need to be there in the first place. certainly not for as long as we were
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OhhhJa posted...

Trump got tricked into this by intelligence agents that are against him. trump screwed himself and fell into a trap

I'd believe this, except it would require him to actually put stock in expert opinions and I've never seen evidence of him actually doing that.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Except multiple previous administrations in quite a number of cases.

No, I'm actually willing to argue this point, because as moronic as previous administrations have been (and there has been plenty of stupidity to go around), there has never been one in modern history - maybe ever - that has been quite so dismissive of people who actually know what they're talking about. The brain drain that has been happening under this administration, as experts, scientists, and career bureaucrats leave or are pushed out in favour of ideologues and sycophants, is pretty much unprecedented in its scope and scale.

Other administrations have done incompetence, sure, no arguments there - but none quite as spectacularly as this one.

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darkknight109 posted...

I'd believe this, except it would require him to actually put stock in expert opinions and I've never seen evidence of him actually doing that.

No, I'm actually willing to argue this point, because as moronic as previous administrations have been (and there has been plenty of stupidity to go around), there has never been one in modern history - maybe ever - that has been quite so dismissive of people who actually know what they're talking about. The brain drain that has been happening under this administration, as experts, scientists, and career bureaucrats leave or are pushed out in favour of ideologues and sycophants, is pretty much unprecedented in its scope and scale.

Other administrations have done incompetence, sure, no arguments there - but none quite as spectacularly as this one.

And we know this is 100% reliable because darkknight109 is totally unbiased and totally not an alt left, according to his endless, completely unbiased posts on the matter.

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The_tall_midget posted...

And we know this is 100% reliable because darkknight109 is totally unbiased and totally not an alt left, according to his endless, completely unbiased posts on the matter.

Considering you have the ability to look it up since you're on the internet, you could easily see that he is correct.

But you're you, so you probably just think it was frogs or women.

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The_tall_midget posted...

And we know this is 100% reliable because darkknight109 is totally unbiased and totally not an alt left, according to his endless, completely unbiased posts on the matter.

There's literally no such thing as an alt left, so it would be hard for me to be something that doesn't exist.

Also, of course I'm biased in my opinions. Everyone is biased. If you believe yourself to be unbiased then all that means is that you are both biased and wrong.

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darkknight109 posted...

There's literally no such thing as an alt left

Ctrl left*
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Dreaming_King posted...

Nothing, nothing will happen. Stop letting yourself get manipulated and hyped up by the media.

this

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