Letter from US Coalition – Will Respect Iraq Parliament’s Decision

| January 6, 2020

Reuters reports that a letter was sent to the Iraqi Defense Ministry, to their Baghdad combined joint operations center. In it, the coalition commander said that they would reposition the troops for further movement. The Reuters article suggests that this is a precursor to withdrawal from Iraq.

The entire article from Reuters:

BAGHDAD, Jan 6 (Reuters) – The United States-led military coalition against Islamic State said on Monday that it was pulling out of Iraq and would be repositioning forces over the next few days and weeks, a letter seen by Reuters showed.

Sir, in deference to the sovereignty of the Republic of Iraq, and as requested by the Iraqi Parliament and the Prime Minister, CJTF-OIR will be repositioning forces over the course of the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement,” read a letter from United States Marine Corps Brigadier General William H. Seely III, the commanding general of Task Force Iraq.

The authenticity of the letter, which was addressed to the Iraqi defence ministry’s Combined Joint Operations Baghdad, was confirmed to Reuters independently by an Iraqi military source.

We respect your sovereign decision to order our departure,” it said. (Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Link to Reuters article.

Edited to add:

Letter to correct Defense Ministry announcing the intent to pull US forces out. (r/The_Donald)

 

Category: Iraq

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AW1Ed

I’d like to view BG Seely’s orders, not a letter confirmed by Iraqi sources. Trust, yet verify.

AW1Ed

Works for me, thanks. Now let’s GTFO and let the Sunnis and Shias duke it out.

Just like since AD 632.

AW1Ed

The Sunnis and Shias have been at odds since the death of Mo, fighting over who should take the helm of the Religion of Peace.

While most of Muhammad’s followers thought that the other elite members of the Islamic community should choose his successor, a smaller group believed only someone from Muhammad’s family— namely his cousin and son-in-law, Ali— should succeed him. This group became known as the Followers of Ali, or Shia.

And its been Hatfields vs. McCoys ever since, for 14 centuries.

11B-Mailclerk

If they unite, snuff the uniting person(s).

Repeat as needed.

Slow Joe

thebesig, the difference is that the Huns and the mongols enjoyed technological parity with the states they conquered. Well, the Huns not so much, but the Tech gap is much greater now.

No Muslim country has the technological capability to build and sustain modern weapon systems.

The industrial capability of South Korea alone, with 50 million people, is greater than the entire Muslim world with over a billion people.

As long as we keep the nukes out of their hands, they are not an existential threat to us.

So let them kill each other over there, but not let them get nukes.

11B-Mailclerk

In a word: Vietnam

“Will to Victory” counts far more than “better toys”.

“we won’t -ever- fucking quit” beats all of the above.

Again, in one word:

Vietnam

Slow Joe

The tech gap in Vietnam was minimal, and the communists successfully maneuvered the US into adopting retarded Rules of Engagements and failing strategies that effectively eliminated the tech gap by manipulating the American political and cultural Left.

rgr769

Great video that proves up once again that most, if not all, D-rat politicians cannot be trusted, as they will sell out the country whenever it is politically expedient for them to do so. I always like to say we, the U.S. military, did not lose that war, we simply quit fighting it and went home, and then the D-rats made sure the commies would subsequently defeat the RVN.

Slow Joe

Disagree. A sufficient tech gap leads to victory by a small number of the uptech civilization.

The West been expanding since 1492, however, real expansion only occurred in the second half of the 19th century, with the Scramble for Africa, the Raj of India, and the Opium Wars agaisnt Qin China.

For example, France could not conquer Algeria until 1830, when the tech gap had grown to a substantial level, similar to the gap enjoyed by the Spaniard expansion in the New World against the Aztecs and Incas.

Therefore, the size of the tech gap is the decisive factor in warfare, and the other factors you mention are only decisive in the absence of a sizable tech gap.

Slow Joe

Thebesig, by the way, you are absolutely wrong about the Mongols.

The Chinese believed themselves superior to all others, but they didn’t have any tech advantage whatsoever on the field. Their only advantage was in siege warfare, and that’s why the Mongols brought Chinese engineers with them, recruited after the fall of the Western Xia, about 20 years before the conquest of the Jin dynasty in Northern China and the Song dynasty in the South.

Both sides used similar armor, excellent light and heavy cavalry, recurved bows, advanced job-specific arrows, and steel blades. The Mongols relied more on light cavalry and mounted archers, avoiding melee combat to the last possible moment, when the enemy had been softened.

rgr769

Exactly, the ones (muslimes) that have emigrated here (legal or not) came here to ultimately exterminate or incorporate us just like the Borg.

SFC (R) B

Hey, not to be the turd in the punch bowl, but your information about the Mongols is sketchy at best. I actually studied them in college and they are by far my favorite war fighters from history. The Roman word Barbarian referred to anyone that wasn’t a Roman. It didn’t necessarily have the negative connotation we place on it today. The Huns and the Mongols also existed in two different time frames and never fought one another. The Huns were steppe raiders, likely historical cousins of the Mongol and Uighurs tribes. Genghis Khan united the various tribes that existed in the steppes of modern day Mongolia, Siberia, most of the “stans”, and parts of china. They expanded through conquest. Tribes, Cities, and States were given the option, join the mongol empire, pay taxes, and send troops to the Army or be crushed, enslaved, and often wiped from the map. They also placed a high emphasis on diplomacy. They always sent diplomats before the Army to make trade deals and negotiate alliances and surrenders. If you harmed there diplomats, you paid the price with often meant capturing your city, raping every femal in your city in front of you, and then systematically killing EVERY living thing within the boundaries of the city. Brutal, but highly effective. If you agreed to join them, you were allowed to keep your own government, keep your own currency, keep your own religion. Saying the Chinese were more advanced then the Mongols is not really accurate. The Mongols absorbed the technology of the lands they captured. There is evidence that they brought siege tactics to the east. They took technology, especially weapons of war and adapted them to their battle tactics. Without a doubt they were the fiercest warriors in history. They also embraced democracy, enfranchised women, had the first reliable postal system, and practiced religious freedom. Had it not been a requirement for them to return to Mongolia to vote for a new Khan, Europe would have been under Mongol rule. The best Armies in Europe had been thoroughly crushed. They depopulated what we know… Read more »

USMC Steve

There ya go. Leaves me no one to root for. The Kurds were the only ones who were not trying to kill us over there. Maybe they will wipe out the other savages and take over. But without our blood and treasure.

Commissar

They are a sovereign nation so unless we want
To topple the regime we helped put in place then we should withdraw.

Dumb decisions have consequences. A dumb decision put us on the ground there, it is fitting a dumb decision forces our withdrawal.

Slow Joe

I wouldn’t use the word dumb if I were you. Just saying.

Commissar

Stupid? Idiotic?

All seem to fit equally with regard to a strike that quite obviously and predictably would make our strategic security decision far worse.

There is a reason we never killed him in the past despot essentially always knowing where he was.

11B-Mailclerk

Ah. You prefer endless slaughter of the cannon fodder, sparing the leadership to keep it endless?

Poppycock. That shitbag was a combatant, has the blood and severed limbs of thousands of Americans on his hands, and is a highly appropriate target.

The more we make a point of killing enemy leaders, the less effective they are.

Fyrfighter

Squidward has been advocating for a long time to get troops out of Iraq, but not that action has been taken that may precipitate just such action, he’s against it, because “Orange man bad!”.. I’m shocked…

USMC Steve

An Iranian General officer in Iraq. For the retarded among us, like herr komissar, that is AN OVERT ACT OF WAR.

A Proud Infidel®™

President Trump could invent a cure for cancer and Lars and his ilk would bawl and screech that the President was profiting from putting Cancer Clinics and Hospitals out of business!

Blaster

So your answer is to just let the terrorist, non discriminatory murdering POS skate again, just because the previous pussies did?

Makes sense!

I zipped up body bags that trail back to this MFr. This POS got what he deserved. Finally! F him and all of the apologists in this country trying to kiss his dead ass.

And by the way – shame on you! You should know better regardless of your political leanings. Put that shit aside long enough to put your country first for a while. GD it boy!

A Proud Infidel®™

HEY Lars, once again you’re full of shit as I chuckle at you and marvel at your brainwashed idiocy.
We have volumes of evidence linking that fuck worm to weapons used in attacks against US Personnel, he should have been smoked years ago but the previous Administration which you worship wanted the attacks to continue. YOUR side is what wants to turn the USA into a third world shithole resembling large swaths of San Foo-foo, but you’re as brainwashed as a German 1930’s Hitler Jugend, “Sturmabteilung” or a member of the Gestapo. Yes Lars, you are part of the liberal “Sturmabteilung” and you’re too brainwashed to even remotely think otherwise!

11B-Mailclerk

He also projects like a multiplex theater.

Comm Center Rat

I’m sure the CEOs of DynCorp, KBR, Halliburton, Triple Canopy, MPRI, L3, G4S, and dozens of other companies will let the Iraqi government know when American involvement is over.

GDContractor

Board members all former Secdefs and retired General Officers. I think you’re onto something.

SFC D

I didn’t always pay attention in high school history class, but didn’t some Eisenhower guy say something about that?

ninja

I thought that memorandum looked odd:

Update to this post and the Rest Of The Story:

“US DEFENSE SECRETARY: THERE’S BEEN NO DECISION TO LEAVE IRAQ”

“Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Monday that a memo declaring U.S. troops’ “onward movement” from Iraq is not accurate. “There’s been no decision whatsoever to leave Iraq,” Esper explained.”

“Esper’s comments came after a leaked memo from the U.S.-led military coalition against the Islamic State said it would be “repositioning forces over the course of the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement.”

“Some news outlets interpreted the letter as saying the U.S. would be withdrawing from Iraq, but Esper says that’s not the case. He told reporters Monday afternoon that his staff is “trying to figure out” what the memo was and said it may reflect troops being re-positioned in the country, but not withdrawn.”

“Gen. Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, later told reporters the letter “was a mistake.” He said it was a draft, poorly worded and had not been signed yet.”

https://www.khou.com/article/news/nation-world/us-led-coalition-to-withdraw-from-iraq-according-to-letter/285-06686d58-968d-4668-8d80-00b61c4867f6

ninja

Having worked at CJTF Headquarters in other AOs as well as at the Pentagon on Army and Joint Staff and writing Memos for General Officer, I became leery when I saw the image of the Memo.

General Milley was correct. The Memo was poorly written and was not signed.

I suspect that it was a draft that the CJTF Headquarters Baghdad Staff may have prepared for future decisions of withdrawing troops and that somehow, that draft got into the hands of a reporter without verification of authencity.

ninja

More verification that the Memo may be Bogus:

https://mobile.twitter.com/TaraCopp/status/1214291544553017346

Someone’s head is gonna roll on this mistake.

5th/77th FA

We can always count on ninja for “the rest of the story.” After all, we do have the best ninjas. If a coupla college football coaches had of listened to ninja’s game plans there would have been some different outcomes on the scoring thereof. Tanks for the update and the clarification.

Heads should roll over this. Been decades since my last debriefing of Top Secret/need to know information and I have still not talked about things I shouldn’t talk about. And much of that info is no longer classified. I carried this training/thought process into the civilian world with the securing of what we called proprietary information.

If these rag heads want to “save face” by ordering us out so be it. The Iraqis should really be concerned as to why a top Iranian General was in their country meeting with a faction that is fighting against them. Gen’rl Cold Cuts was an enemy combatant helping coordinate attacks against Americans. Maybe he should of left his cell phone in the office and observed some radio silence and he might still be alive. Bastard knew the job could be dangerous when he took it.

I look forward to us pulling everything and everybody we have over there the hell out. Spend the 100s of billions of dollars on securing the US so we can keep those f^ckers off of our lawn. You boys and girls that have made multiple trips have done all you can do under the ROE you were saddled with. Let some other sucker become their sugar daddy.

ninja

KoB, you NAILED IT 200% and then some when you wrote:

” I look forward to us pulling everything and everybody we have over there the hell out. Spend the 100s of billions of dollars on securing the US so we can keep those f^ckers off of our lawn. You boys and girls that have made multiple trips have done all you can do under the ROE you were saddled with. Let some other sucker become their sugar daddy.”

AMEN, AMEN, AMEN!!!

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

😉😎😁

11B-Mailclerk

Ahem.

“You want our troops out? -Good-! This frees then up for much better purposes, elsewhere. Much better indeed.”

Properly worded, someone just might want them to stay, after all.

AW1Ed

After all, we do have the best ninjas.

Who is this “ninja” of which you speak?
*grin*

ninja

One of the BEST 4 Letters posted on TAH:

*g-r-i-n*

Thank You, AW1Ed. That was PERFECT.

😉

Commissar

The DoD is trapped between Iraq and a hard head.

If the host nation government tells us to leave with are obligated to do so unless we want consider our status an occupation and topple the government…again.

So they are planning a withdrawal, and waiting for the president, who should be leading rather than straggling behind, to catch up to the current reality.

In the meantime they are going to publicly pretend that a withdrawal is not on the table.

We are in no position to reoccupy Iraq. Especially with the gloves off with respect to Iran at the same time.

Whether the president wants to admit he fucked up or not… doubling down is an even a dumber decision that the mess he just created.

Fyrfighter

ORANGE MAN BAD!

ninja

Commissar:

What was the “mess” that President Trump “just created”?

Do you have any better ideas?

Have you ever lost any friends or comrades or Soldiers to Terrorists on US soil or the Middle East?

Asking For A Friend Who Perished At The Pentagon On 9-11.

Asking For One Of My Soldiers Who Was KIA In Iraq.

Blaster

All I can add is asking- why is the left and the Hollywood elites so scared of Iran?

I guess they have no faith in our armed forces- like in 91 and again in 03. I’ll not be pushed around. I don’t look for trouble, but if you want to come at me with trouble on your mind- we’ll, game on. The global stage is simply a bigger playground. Iran has been poking the bear for a long time, the bear finally has a leader with the kiwis to push back.

GD, is it that hard d to understand that the best way to fight a bully is to stand up against them?

ninja

Blaster:

Wonder how the Extreme Left and some Hollywood Elites would react if a certain “leader” of North Korea “accidently” met his demise under President Trump’s watch.

Hanoi Jane would probably lead another demonstration march.

Oh, the Horrors!

😉😎

A Proud Infidel®™

Those idiots likely think that REAL Socialism hasn’t been tried yat, thus North Korea and Venezuela don’t count!

11B-Mailclerk

The “mess” is that Trump just made hash of 40 years of Left/Democrat “we just have to get along with the Iranians” and “don’t annoy the Iranians or they might hurt us more” narrative.

Kinda like the Left used to say about the Soviets. They were kinda way wrong about those folks, too.

A Proud Infidel®™

They still want the Jimmeh Kahtuh style of International Relations, aka just letting everyone walk over and spit on you.

Dennis - not chevy

Was I the only one who watched TV in 1979? Does no one remember an Iranian General Officer telling the world Iran had declared war on the USA? The General went on the say Viet Nam is a little country and Iran, because it is a large country, would defeat the USA?

Blaster

No sir! I remember!

Maybe that’s why the pussification of this Country is pissing me off so much.

ninja

Dennis:

Sadly, some of the demonstrators were not even living in 1979, i.e. they were born AFTER 1980.

They have no clue, especially the ones who don’t study history.

They just want to protest because President Trump is in charge.

I don’t recall any protests being initiated when we took down Bin Laden under BHO’s watch.

A Proud Infidel®™

I remember, I watched in on TV when I was a grade schooler and couldn’t even force myself to believe that someone could pussyfoot around like Jimmeh Kahtuh did, IMHO the mess over there is HIS legacy!

Ex-PH2

No, because it was the last thing I watched every night, when Ted Koppel started the count of days that the US hostages were held captive. They were not released until the election results were announced, and even then, there was some real doubt that they’d be turned over alive at all.

And ommissar, being the insular and uninformed dorkwad that he is, has no idea about any of this, nor does he care. It’s all about “orange man bad!”, nothing else.

Commie-Tsar

My empiric data tells me the following:

ORANGE. MAN. BAD.

A Proud Infidel®™

You’re a brainwashed FOOL, Lars. You DO however serve a useful purpose in showing us how blindly brainwashed people can be especially meatheads in a hippie factory like UC Berzerkely!

ninja

Reuters is now reporting a different story:

“Pentagon Chief Denies U.S. Leaving Iraq; Tehran Crowds Mourn Commander”:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-security/pentagon-chief-denies-us-leaving-iraq-tehran-crowds-mourn-commander-idUSKBN1Z50KU

Berliner

Another Reuters article from January 3rd justifies Trumps actions to take out the Quds General:

“Inside the plot by Iran’s Soleimani to attack U.S. forces in Iraq”

“In mid-October, Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani met with his Iraqi Shi’ite militia allies at a villa on the banks of the Tigris River, looking across at the U.S. embassy complex in Baghdad.

The Revolutionary Guards commander instructed his top ally in Iraq, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and other powerful militia leaders to step up attacks on U.S. targets in the country using sophisticated new weapons provided by Iran, two militia commanders and two security sources briefed on the gathering told Reuters…”

ninja

Commissar:

Have to admit that I am a wee bit worried about you.

What will your feelings be toward President Trump if the leader of North Korea “accidently” perished under President Trump’s watch?

Just curious.

ninja

And another Update:

“Pentagon Says US Military Won’t Leave Iraq, ‘Draft Letter’ On Troop Movements Released By ‘Mistake'”

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pentagon-military-wont-leave-iraq-draft-letter-troop-movements-mistake

“Bottom line. This was a mistake,” Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters. “This was an honest mistake.”

“Milley called the letter “poorly worded” and said it “implies withdrawal. That’s not what’s happening.”

“It was a draft, unsigned letter because we are moving forces around and we have increased helicopter movement in Iraq,” Milley said, adding that unsigned draft letters are often circulated in Washington, repeating that he thought this was an “honest mistake.”

“It should not have been sent,” he said. “I walked down here intentionally in order to get control of that because that can have second- and third-order effects in a lot of directions in very dynamic situations.”

“I don’t want to be misunderstood,” Milley added.

GDContractor

Looking forward to duffleblog back inging clarity to this situation.

GDContractor

*bringing

ninja

Good One, GD!

😆😅🤣😂!!!!!!

A Proud Infidel®™

It’s been said that the DEAD Iranian Generals’s remains were flown home via coach and that’s fine BECAUSE what was left of him didn’t require any leg room.
OH YEAH, and while his extra-crispy remains were being mourned with crowds screeching, they were being carried in an AMERICAN-Made Chevy Pickup, a vehicle made by their “Great Satan” carried General Extra-Crispy.

BruteLarson44407

Please let this be true, and not with the horseshit caveat that; ‘a few will remain in advisory positions,’ or any other such wording. Please also recover,destroy, or disable for all time anything more potentially deadly than a plastic spoon if it’s stamped or labeled ‘U.S., or even NATO anything’; better yet, ANY ITEM not labeled “Made in Iraq” that can be seized without endangering any U.S. personnel.

GDContractor

It looks like TAH has assisted the Iranians in a “propaganda coup”.
That’s probably a first.

https://thedispatch.com/p/anatomy-of-a-screw-up-the-story-behind