A recent episode of the Lawfare Daily podcast brings together three experts to discuss the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and what it means for the bilateral relationship. Host Scott Anderson, a Lawfare senior editor, is joined by Omar Mohammed, a senior researcher at George Washington University and founder of the Mosul Eye blog; Doug Silliman, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq; and Victoria Taylor, former deputy assistant secretary for Iraq and Iran at the State Department.
The conversation focuses on lessons from the prior U.S. withdrawal in 2011 treat as a possible guide for the latest exit. The guests also consider whether the current Iraqi government is prepared to prevent an ISIS resurgence and push back against Iranian interests without a U.S. military presence. All of this comes more than two decades after the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.
The episode does not offer a single definitive conclusion, but it frames the central uncertainties facing both countries. The future of the U.S.-Iraq relationship, the authors suggest, hinges on how those questions are answered in the coming years.