No Take-Backs! Iraq Still Expects US Withdrawal Mistakenly Promised In DOD Letter

.

Oh, the Trump administration’s letter informing Iraq of the U.S.’ withdrawal from the country was actually just “an honest mistake”? Too bad.

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that even though the Pentagon clumsily retracted Marine Corps Brig. Gen. William Seely’s letter on Monday and told reporters there was “no decision whatsoever” to leave Iraq, the Middle Eastern country expects the U.S. to go through with it anyway.

“We don’t deal with statements [made] in the media,” an unnamed senior Iraqi official told the Post. “As a state, we deal with the official letters that we receive, and we will act in accordance with this letter.”

According to the official, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi believes there is “no way to organize Iraq stably” while foreign troops are still in the country.

“We will tell the U.S. to put in place a timeline to implement this withdrawal,” the official said.

The Post stated that another official had backed up the first official’s remarks.

In his letter to Iraq’s Ministry of Defense on Monday, Seely laid out the U.S.’ “movement out of Iraq” and acknowledged Iraq’s “sovereign decision to order our departure,” referencing the Iraqi parliament’s resolution to have all foreign forces removed.

The letter prompted a wave of confusion given that a day prior to the letter, President Donald Trump had made a blustering threat to impose “very big sanctions” on Iraq if it expelled U.S. troops.

Several hours after Seely’s letter spread online, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley scrambled to walk back the “poorly worded” letter, which they said was merely a draft and an “honest mistake.”

“That’s not what’s happening,” Milley said of the letter’s affirmation of U.S. withdrawal.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/no-take-backs-iraq-still-expects-us-withdrawal-mistakenly-promised-in-dod-letter