U.S. troops leave Iraq, but Iran-backed militias’ future is uncertain– www.latimes.com

BEIRUT  — America opened its “forever war” in Iraq more than 23 years ago with “Shock and Awe.” It ended it on Wednesday with little of either, even as the legacy of that conflict — which saw Iraq endure sectarian bloodbaths, civil war and an insurgency that made Baghdad the car bomb capital of the world — continues to cast its shadow on the country today.

President Trump, summing up the U.S. role in Iraq as “a very expensive excursion into Hell,” said, “This day is a victory for the United States, a victory for Iraq…. We’re getting the hell out of there.”

It was the second time U.S. forces have pulled out of Iraq. The first withdrawal took place in 2011, capping the occupation that began in 2003 and toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and which resulted in Iraqi deaths that number 110,000 to four times greater and the loss of about 4,500 U.S. service members.

But three years later, Islamic State jihadis scythed through wide swaths of Iraq, scooping up U.S.-supplied materiel — as Iraqi troops literally ran away — and seizing control of nearly a third of the country. The U.S., this time at the Iraqi government’s request, led a coalition in a campaign — named Inherent Resolve — that by 2017 had destroyed Islamic State’s caliphate and driven most of its fighters into Syria. Since then, Iraqi forces have fought Islamic State remnants engaged in a low-level insurgency around the country’s remote areas.