Retired Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer told Newsmax on Friday that pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq would be like "deja vu all over again."
"A guy named Lloyd Austin, Gen. Austin, attempted to do a withdrawal in Iraq under [Barack] Obama," Shaffer told "The Chris Salcedo Show." "And guess what? It didn't work. As a matter of fact, when there was a contemplation of leaving Afghanistan, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Joe Dunford, went into Obama and said, 'You pull out of Afghanistan without regard to conditions, you will see another Iraq.' So we've already tried this once."
His comments came amid reports the U.S. has reached a deal to pull U.S.-led coalition forces out of Iraq beginning next year. According to the report, hundreds of troops would leave Iraq by September 2025, and the rest would be out by the end of 2026.
Shaffer questioned the utility of such a move, saying, "I'm not sure of what the draw is exactly of leaving any nation we invest in regarding defense and collective security. So this, again, is something that I don't trust the Democrats to do. I think we need to look at conditions on the ground."
"And at this point," Shaffer said, "remember the Iraqis are being infested by a lot of the Iranians and Iranian militias. So if you if you're concerned about stability, I'm not sure if just leaving altogether is the right solution."
Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt weighed in, saying the Biden-Harris administration's national security team, "[has] a perfect record. They are defeated 100% of the time."
He added, "They have gotten tons and tons and tons of people killed, blood and treasure around this world. Yes. The costs are just insurmountable."
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Kate McManus ✉
Kate McManus is a New Jersey-based Newsmax writer who's spent more than two decades as a journalist.
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