January 12, 2020 "Information Clearing House" -  President Donald Trump has no legal or moral right to reject the Iraqi government’s officially submitted request for the withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq. His refusal to pull them out defies both the Iraqi parliament’s vote and the agreement signed by the two sides that provided legal cover for the deployment of 5,300 American personnel in the country to train Iraqi forces and help them fight the Islamic State group (Daesh). Iraq no longer needs nor wants that assistance, and certainly not from an aggressive occupying power.

Washington’s stance betrays long-term hostile intentions against Iraq and the entire Middle East region.

Even more ominously, the Pentagon now says it is studying plans to expand the NATO presence in Iraq. This means bringing in additional troops and armament in open defiance of the Iraqi government and parliament – effectively mounting a repeat invasion of the country, under equally spurious pretexts as the first time.

In addition, Trump has been reiterating that if the Iraqis insist on the Americans leaving, they will first have to “payback” the costs incurred by the US in the country, “otherwise we’ll stay there’’. He also threatened to confiscate billions of dollars of Iraqi government funds held in the US and subject the country to draconian economic sanctions “as they’ve never seen before.”

By refusing to withdraw its troops and threatening to reinforce the NATO presence, the US is continuing to treat Iraq as an occupied territory, showing utter contempt both for its sovereignty and its government – a government that came to power as a result of the political process the US itself imposed on the country.