From MSNBC: U.S.-led coalition says it will withdraw from Iraq: letter.
BAGHDAD, Jan 6 (Reuters) – The United States-led military coalition against Islamic State said on Monday that it was pulling out of Iraq and would be repositioning forces over the next few days and weeks, a letter seen by Reuters showed.
“Sir, in deference to the sovereignty of the Republic of Iraq, and as requested by the Iraqi Parliament and the Prime Minister, CJTF-OIR will be repositioning forces over the course of the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement,” read a letter from United States Marine Corps Brigadier General William H. Seely III, the commanding general of Task Force Iraq.
(Featured image is “Exit” by kjelljoran. Used under a creative commons license.)
Now the SOD says he’s seen the letter and has no idea where is came from but we arent’ getting out. The F**k remains energetically and creatively but predictably clustered.Report
Heh, was coming to post the same thing. I have no idea what’s going on. Drat these kids and their troublesome social media!Report
The speed with which the admin and associated military staff can look incompetent is just to fast for all of us. Apparently , so far, it was a draft letter that got out “accidentally.” Oy.Report
On the other hand… this Reuters report says the Draft was signed and that it was provided to them by Iraqi Military, and it was “a letter seen by Reuters”
“It was signed by United States Marine Corps Brigadier General William H. Seely III, commanding general of Task Force Iraq, the U.S.-led military coalition against Islamic State”
I’m getting a different vibe than “Draft” … kinda like the “Draft” of Trump’s public call to pull out of Syria.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-security-withdrawal/in-letter-us-military-tells-iraq-it-will-withdraw-idUSKBN1Z520AReport
My assumption was that this was a spill. Huh.Report
It’s hard to not see a certain sequence of events here: Trump notifies Pentagon that he wants to withdraw troops before they’re unceremoniously kicked out; Pentagon writes up a notice, asks Trump if this official policy; Trump bangs his fist, “Send it!”, Pentagon informs public of withdrawal letter; Trump *sees this on TV* and immediately realizes it makes him look like a fool….Report
The latest report on twitter, fwiw, is that the Iraqi PM’s office leaked it. Why they would have a copy of a draft is a question.
But we are sending b-52’s to diego garcia, which is an island aircraft carrier in the middle of the indian ocean. They could be used to launch wads of cruise missiles at iran. That is assuming everybody in the WH or pentagon doesn’t get locked inside their car or get stuck pushing on a door that says “pull.”Report
If it turns our that the Iranian intelligence service has access to Trump’s official email account and deliberately leaked it to demonstrate their mad hacking skills, I for one will respond with a slow but earnest golf clap.Report
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if recordings of phone conversations between trump and others with his trumpness saying embarrassing thing come out. I’ll bet a few countries have been listening to his phone calls so who knows what they have.Report
Given that the President’s personal consigliere, fixer, and bagman Rudy Guiliani accidentally butt dialed a reporter, who the hell else has been butt dialed, or sent a dick pic, or nuclear launch codes by accident by the White House staff?
I’m imagining the employee breakroom at Mar A Lago is like some made for TV movie about the League Of Supervillians, where North Koreans, Russians, Chinese and Iranian spies all get together and swap stories and jokes.Report
BREAKING NEWS: US Notifies Iraq Of Withdrawal (of) LetterReport
The task force against ISIS in the area (Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve) is led by a lieutenant general and two major generals, who I think are all stationed in Kuwait. A brigadier general covering just Iraq probably wouldn’t have much a say in anything except reporting up the chain.Report
A brigadier General in the scenario you’re suggesting wouldn’t have a Draft either.
So there’s a gap in the story somewhere… we just have no certain idea where.
The simplest version is that Trump insists on the letter, bypasses CoC and after the fact CoC and DoD pull back the letter like they more or less refused to withdraw from Syria when Trump told them to.
Admittedly, this seems harder for a weak SecDef like Esper vs. Mattis, but unless Reuters is lying about seeing the signed letter, or the Iraqis are deceived about the authenticity of the letter… the sticking point as of now is the SIGNED letter, not the circulated unsigned letter.
And, if it is a complete fake, as you maybe imply(?)… then why would the DoD confirm it was a Draft rather than call it a fake?
Somethin’ don’t make sense.Report
There is no draft. The most they can do is send registered letters.Report
DoD is now saying it wasn’t so much a draft as a selectively serviced hot take.Report
Explanation found:
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And US Generals drunk signed it.Report