Islamic State in Iraq and Syria Is Why a Small Number of U.S. Troops Are in Iraq and Syria

After Iranian proxies attacked U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria without any recent U.S. provocation, some have been asking why the United States has any troops in Iraq and Syria.

Michael Brendan Dougherty writes on the homepage:

If we had listened to hawks, our will and resources would be even more depleted than they are now. Their policy influence means we have unnecessarily kept a small number of troops in Syria. They have a handful of missions, but mostly exist as a memorial to the hawks’ own regrets about America’s unwillingness to pursue a regime-change war in Damascus in the 2010s. Those troops were not on an essential mission and are now in danger of being engulfed in the flames fanned by Hamas.

Let’s recall the actual history that led to the current presence of 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq and 900 U.S. troops in Syria. In 2011, President Barack Obama brought U.S. troop levels in Iraq down to zero. A few years later, an al-Qaeda offshoot called the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria grew into a large jihadi army that conquered large portions of Iraq and Syria. The United States and its allies then mostly destroyed ISIS and decided to leave a small number of troops behind to prevent it from re-emerging.

Here’s what President Donald Trump wrote in a letter to Congress in June 2020 (emphasis added):

As part of a comprehensive strategy to defeat ISIS, United States Armed Forces are conducting a systematic campaign of airstrikes and other necessary operations against ISIS forces in Iraq and Syria and against al-Qa’ida in Syria.  A small presence of United States Armed Forces remains in strategically significant locations in Syria to conduct operations and secure critical petroleum infrastructure, in partnership with indigenous ground forces, against continuing terrorist threats emanating from Syria.  United States Armed Forces in Iraq continue to advise, coordinate with, and provide support to select elements of the Iraqi security forces, including Iraqi Kurdish security forces.  Support to Iraqi security forces includes training, equipment, communications support, and intelligence support.  United States Armed Forces also provide limited support to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization mission in Iraq.  Actions in Iraq are being undertaken in coordination with the Government of Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government, and in conjunction with coalition partners.

Here’s what Texas GOP congressman Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in March 2023:

Even though ISIS no longer controls significant territory, there are still tens of thousands of hardened terrorist fighters in Iraq and Syria who are hell bent on re-establishing their terror state. 

In the last quarter of 2022, ISIS claimed 72 attacks in Iraq and Syria, including several IED attacks.

Thankfully, our small deployment of U.S. service members is remarkably effective at working with local partner forces to achieve results – and ensure the enduring and complete defeat of ISIS. Otherwise these numbers could have been much worse.

In 2022, we were involved in 108 partner and 14 unilateral operations, killing 466 ISIS operatives and detaining 215 others.

So the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — which the United States and its allies have mostly but not entirely destroyed — is why we have kept a small number of troops in Iraq and Syria.

If you want to argue that we have no reason to fear that history would repeat itself if America followed Barack Obama’s 2011 playbook, feel free. But a real argument against the presence of 3,400 U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria would at least attempt to grapple with McCaul’s argument about ISIS rather than pretend a small number of U.S. troops were left behind mostly “as a memorial to the hawks’ own regrets about America’s unwillingness to pursue a regime-change war in Damascus in the 2010s.”