By Daniel L. Davis
In an interview with Military Times on Thursday, Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, said, despite the looming withdrawal from Afghanistan, there is no such plan to end America’s other forever-war in the Middle East. The U.S. military, he said, is “going to stay in Iraq.”
President Biden would be wise, however, to reject the general’s advice and withdraw our troops from Iraq, as our presence there does not make our country safer.
McKenzie’s desire to cling to the combat mission in Iraq is symptomatic of the position held by many in Washington’s foreign policy establishment. The concept of using force to solve America’s international challenges is not only the preferred tool of statecraft for countless U.S. opinion leaders but these advocates recoil, almost reflexively, from the idea of downsizing any ongoing combat operation. As is the case in a disturbingly large percentage of occasions, the reasons cited for retaining the operations are paper thin.
This piece was originally published in 1945 on April 23, 2021. Read more HERE.