When trump was campaigning, I remember him saying we went into Iraq and

[shraby]

didn't keep the oil, and how terrible that was of us.

Is that why he's putting troops in Iraq to "guard the oil"? What does he think his next move is in that scenario?

[dewsgirl]

1. Whatever is good for Russia, you can bet on it.

[unblock]

2. he thinks putin will be "guarding the oil" for us.

and of course putin will be happy to control the oil and keep it safe for us.

for an exorbitant fee, of course....

[Blue_true]

3. We have had troops in Iraq since the last couple of years of the Obama Presidency.

They have brought stability and the Iraqis want them there.

The reason why Bush decided to pull troops from Iraq was the Iraqi leaders would not agree to a Status of Forces agreement that governed our troops in the country. President Obama tried to negotiate an agreement that allowed a few thousand troops to stay in Iraq, but the Iraqis still wanted things in the SoF agreement that were unacceptable to the USA, so President Obama went ahead with the troop withdrawal plan that Bush had first crafted.

When ISIS overran much of northern and western Iraq, the Iraqi leaders had a change of heart and asked for some US troops. Today there are something like 4,000-5,000 US troops stationed in units around Irag, the 1,000 that Trump is pulling from Syria are said to be to reinforce our forces in northern Iraq, but nothing Trump says can be trusted.