Pat Lang, Tucker Carlson Insist Trump Should Withdraw from Iraq

Jan. 4, 2020 (EIRNS)—Two U.S. analysts with influence among supporters of President Donald Trump have urged that he now promptly withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.

The conclusion of the post by Col. Pat Lang (ret.) on Jan. 3 on his “Sic Semper Tyrannis—A Committee of Correspondence” blog was as follows: “The Iraqi parliament is going to vote in emergency session over the issue of the death of al-Muhandis. Will they vote to expel the U.S. from their country? Will we go if they vote that way? We should.... Trump should welcome such a vote. He wants to get out of the ME? What greater opportunity could we have to do so? Let us leave if invited to ago.”

Colonel Lang said that the United States relationship to the “supposedly sovereign” government of Iraq has been corrupt since Bush’s Iraq War, and he emphasizes, “To say that he [Gen. Qasem Soleimani] was a BAD MAN because he fought us, as well as the Sunni jihadis, is simply infantile.”

In his “Tucker Carlson Tonight” broadcast on Fox News for Jan. 3, Carlson said that the United States could be heading into a war with Iran “after 19 years of war in Afghanistan have accomplished nothing”; and that the American people want President Donald Trump to get the troops out of the Middle East including Iraq. Like Colonel Lang, Carlson called it absurd to justify the killing of an adversary individual “because he is a bad man.” He used a clip of an interview with Secretary of State Pompeo to show that the “imminent killing of Americans” said to be prevented by assassinating Soleimani, referred to his planning attacks on U.S. soldiers in the Mideast—not in the United States, as Iran may now try to do.

The American and “coalition” forces in Iraq are now reduced to self-protection regardless of how the Iraqi parliament votes. Reuters reported that training of Iraqi forces by U.S. and coalition troops was suspended by Operation Inherent Resolve commander Lt. Gen. Pat White, who “decided to further increase protection for forces deployed in Iraq under Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR)” and stop training. NATO Multinational Corps Northeast commander Lt. Gen. Erich Pfeffer of Germany briefed the Bundestag foreign affairs and defense committees by letter Jan. 3: “Thus, the training for the Iraqi security and armed forces throughout Iraq is temporarily suspended. The directive is binding for all partner nations involved in OIR at the training sites in Iraq.”

Moreover, an Iraqi military spokesman, Abdel Karim Khalaf, announced today: “After the recent events that have taken place, it was decided to limit the work of U.S. forces in Iraq. The U.S. side has been notified.... They can act only with Iraqi consent, but after such a stab in the back, we will, of course, limit their activities.” Khalaf stated, “Iraq is able to cope with this task on its own, as well as with the task of protecting its territory.”