Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2025 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Donald Trump
As US Pulls Military Trainers from Iraq, will the Coronavirus Finally End America's Forever Wars?

As US Pulls Military Trainers from Iraq, will the Coronavirus Finally End America’s Forever Wars?

Juan Cole 03/22/2020

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Will the coronavirus result in the second withdrawal of US troops from Iraq? There is an increasing question of whether the some 5,000 US military personnel there can be protected from the outbreak if they remain in that country. In any case, many of those servicemen are involved in training Iraqi troops, and the Baghdad government has cancelled training activities for 60 days because of the Covid-19 threat. As a result, the US and Britain are “temporarily” withdrawing some of their personnel involved in this training from the country.

The US Department of Defense said, “To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Iraqi Security Forces have suspended all training. As a result, the coalition will temporarily return some of its training-focused forces to their own countries in the coming days and weeks.”

Although Iraqi authorities ordered the population to begin sheltering in place or limiting their circulation (depending on the province) on March 17 through the 23rd, there are reports of occasional disregard of this decree. The curfew will be extended by parliament for at least another week, in part to ensure that medical and other emergency personnel can easily and quickly get around.

Lt. Col. Abdul Husain Tamimi, in charge of Baghdad operations, pleaded on Saturday for the capital’s residents to pay more attention to the curfew.

A24: “Iraq| Baghdad’s streets turn into ghost towns after curfew”

AFP reports that although Iraq’s grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has called on Iraqis not to gather in large crowds for prayers, the faithful did not pay attention to his advice on Saturday. Thousands of worshipers came out to honor the Imam Musa al-Kazim.

Informed Comment cannot verify the below footage that purports to show worshipers eating together at the shrine of Imam Kadhim in northern Baghdad on Saturday:

Iraqi Shiites aren’t ready to follow coronavirus’s safety instructions

Ismaeel Naar reports at Alarabiya, moreover, that according to their YouTube postings, some Shiite clergy are preaching to pious crowds who gather to commemorate the birth and death dates of the Twelve Imams, eleven of them descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. Reciter Ali Grebawi allegedly told mourners for the Prophet’s grandson Imam Husain that shedding tears for his martyrdom at the hands of the Umayyad state in 680 AD was salvific and would protect them from the virus despite their gathering in crowds.

It seems likely that the Iraqi government built by the US is far too weak to police a sheltering in place policy effectively, and that Iraq will end up looking more like Italy than like Singapore. I hope I’m wrong, since Iraqis have been through enough mayhem and death. But if the coronavirus does take a big toll on the country, it seems a little unlikely that US troops embedded on Iraqi bases will be spared.

The Iraqi parliament legislated a firm decree (it was not advisory) in January demanding the withdrawal of US troops from that country after Trump began attacking Shiite militias there, which are part of the Iraqi military. The Iraqi side of the Joint Operations Command has also demanded an urgent US withdrawal. Two US troops have been killed in the last week and a half and several more injured by militia rocket attacks. Between the coronavirus and ongoing rocket strikes, they seem more sitting ducks than a coalition military force.

At what point is it irresponsible of Trump and secretary of defense Mark Esper to leave them there, vulnerable?

Filed Under: Donald Trump, Epidemics, Featured, Iraq

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

Primary Sidebar

Support Independent Journalism

Click here to donate via PayPal.

Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:

Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter to have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.
Warning! Social media will not reliably deliver Informed Comment to you. They are shadowbanning news sites, especially if "controversial."
To see new IC posts, please sign up for our email Newsletter.

Social Media

Bluesky | Instagram

Popular

  • Are Cyberattacks and Iran's Port Explosion the First Salvo in Disrupting U.S.-Iran Nuclear Talks?
  • Removing Syria Sanctions is a Win for the People, Whatever Trump's Motives
  • Even as it Strikes Deals with Trump, the Gulf Embraces Chinese Tech Giants
  • Can we Even Remember it? How America was Disappeared before our Eyes
  • Pope Leo XIV’s Link to Haiti is Part of a broader American Story of Race, Citizenship and Migration

Gaza Yet Stands


Juan Cole's New Ebook at Amazon. Click Here to Buy
__________________________

Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



Click here to Buy Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


Click here to Buy The Rubaiyat.
Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2025 All Rights Reserved