Letters from an American - Withdrawal from Iraq

Episode Date: October 1, 2026

September 30, 2026After more than two decades, the deaths of countless Iraqi civilians and more than 4,500 US troops, the wounding of more than 30,000 US military personnel, and a cost of more than $2.8 trillion, the US has pulled out the last of its forces from Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq, A small contingent of advisors had remained after the US and Iraq agreed to a withdrawal plan in 2024, At that time, Iran seemed to be on the ropes, but Trump’s war on Iran has strengthened the country’s hand in the region, The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was based on the belief that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was destabilizing the Middle East, Although Saddam had not been involved in the 9/11 attack, officials from the George W Bush administration pushed the idea that the terrorists were affiliated with Iraq, The administration warned that Saddam Hussein was amassing weapons of mass destruction and when Secretary of State Colin Powell warned in a speech at the UN that Iraq had chemical WMDs and the resources to create nuclear weapons, people were convinced it was true. Later the evidence was discredited, but enough countries backed an invasion that in March 2003 American troops invaded with the intention of overthrowing the government, Saddam’s forces crumbled and by May the US had set up a transitional government and Bush had declared “Mission Accomplished,” But it wasn’t, Now the United States is entering the eighth month of a war on Iran that Trump apparently began with the same cowboy mentality as Bush carried into the war in Iraq, And Pete Hegseth is celebrating his transformation of the military and its “patriotic cowboys.” To read this letter, click here:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyYou can also find Heather at:YouTubeBlueskyInstagramFacebookThreadsTikTok Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

Hello, this is Michael Moss. Heather Cox Richardson is unable to read the letter today, so I will be reading it in her place. September 30, 26. A Washington Post headline today read, U.S. withdraws forces in Iraq, as balance of power shifts to Iran. Journalist Mustafa Salim and Alex Horton explained,

after more than two decades, the deaths of more than 200,000 Iraqi civilians and more than 4,500 U.S. troops, the wounding of more than 30,000 U.S. military personnel and the cost of more than $2.8 trillion. The last of the U.S. military forces in Iraq today pulled out of herbal airbase in northern Iraq. In December 2021, the military announced it was ending U.S. combat in Iraq, leaving about 2,500 troops to advise and assist Iraqi forces. In 2023, the Iraqi government called for complete U.S. withdrawal, and former President Joe Biden and former Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-S.-Sudani agreed to a withdrawal plan in 2024, but Iraq allowed a small contingent of advisors to remain after that deadline

when the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria led to concerns that the confusion in Syria would allow militant Islamic groups to regain a foothold there. At the time Biden agreed to withdraw from Iraq, Iran appeared to be on the ropes, with its regime isolated from neighboring countries and laboring under sanctions and increasing public unrest. Now, as Salim and Horton note,

Trump's impulsive war on Iran has strengthened Iran's hand in the region. The U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, in the wake of the 9-11 attacks on the United States two years before, although Iraq was not involved in that attack. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, a group of foreign policy hawks known as neocons were frustrated that Democratic President Bill Clinton

was not pushing American ideology overseas as hard as they thought he should. In 1997, political commentator William Crystal brought together Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and other neocons to insist that the United States should significantly increase defense spending and lead the world. Believing that Iraq's Saddam Hussein was destabilizing the Middle East,

they saw removing him from power as key to their project for the new American century. Iraq had allied with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and Neocons believed the U.S. must challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values and promote the cause of political and economic freedom abroad. Saddam was out of reach until September 11, 2001, when Neocons saw al-Qaeda's attack on the U.S. as an opportunity to hit Saddam Hussein, although he had not been involved, in the attack. The terrorists, 15 from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Lebanon, and one from Egypt, were operating out of Afghanistan, where the ruling extremist Islamic government, the Taliban, permitted al-Qaeda to have a foothold. Although Saddam

was not affiliated with the 9-11 attackers, officials in the George W. Bush administration pushed so hard on the idea that the terrorists were affiliated with Iraq that many Americans, especially those who watched the Fox News Channel, which pushed the connection, came to believe, incorrectly, that the 9-11 terrorists were either Iraqi or were working with Saddam Hussein. Bush launched attacks on the Taliban government, successfully overthrowing it before the end of 2001. and then the administration undertook to reorder the Middle East in America's image. In 2002, it announced the Bush doctrine, arguing that the new conditions of terrorism required the government to act preemptively to forestall hostile acts rather than wait for an attack.

It embraced the idea that there was right and wrong in foreign affairs and demanded that America wage a war of ideas by, spreading pro-American economic and cultural policies. It warned that there were few greater threats to America than a terrorist attack with weapons of mass destruction, or WMDs, meaning nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. To convince recalcitrant foreign policy realists that Saddam Hussein needed to be removed from power, Bush administration officials warned that the dictator was a massive WMDs, including nuclear devices. In a television interview, National Security Advisor Rice warned of mushroom clouds rising over American cities and insisted that Saddam was working

to obtain a nuclear weapon. On February 5, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke passionately before the United Nations, providing what he insisted was evidence that Saddam had chemical WMDs and had obtained the resources to create nuclear weapons. He hinted that the Iraqi leader had worked with al-Qaeda in 2001 or that he might in the future. Powell was well-known and trusted. If he said Iraq was deadly dangerous, people thought it must be true. It later turned out that Powell had not personally vetted the evidence he presented, and that it was almost entirely either discredited or made up a rumor. But his speech did the trick. Enough countries to call it a coalition of the willing,

although the only major power that participated was the United Kingdom, backed an invasion of Iraq. On March 20, 2003, American troops invaded Iraq with the intention of overthrowing Saddam Hussein, Dane's government. The operation would be a cakewalk, the administration thought. Desperate Iraqis who hated their leader would welcome coalition forces with open arms. Like cowboy heroes, and often portrayed as cowboys, American soldiers would bring democracy and capitalism to the united Iraqis. Saddam's forces crumbled in little over a month.

By May, the United States had set up a transitional government. in Iraq, overseen by former ambassador and State Department official El Paul Bremer. On May 1st, 2003, Bush landed in a fixed-wing aircraft on the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Wearing a flight suit, he posed for photographs with the vessel's crew, which had just returned from the Persian Gulf. Bush then gave a speech announcing the end of major combat operations in Iraq. Festooning the aircraft carrier was a giant banner emblazoned, mission accomplished. But of course, it wasn't. Today on social media, Trump took credit to himself for ending the U.S. engagement in Iraq, although he confused the names of two different Iraqi operations,

complaining that it was very bad decision-making that got us involved in this quagmire in the first place. And yet the United States is entering its eighth month of a war on Iran that Trump apparently began with the same cowboy mentality Bush carried into the war in Iraq. Today, defense secretary Pete Hegesith delivered a state of the force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico. He announced he had transformed the military by enforcing the idea of no fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals, just warriors. The ideological clowns are out, he said. The patriotic cowboys are in, with testosterone testing on top. Letters from an American was written by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions.

Dead in Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.