You are over-analyzing it, Alan.
I suspect that the real reason for the army withdrawal was a telephone call from Turkey in which Erdogan gave him an advance notice that they are going in, and that he better gets his troups out of the trouble. Iraq seemed a convenient place to move the troups to.
Exactly. Trump didn't want to leave American troops in the middle of a fight that was going to commence. Trump has been telling everyone for months he intended to get our troops out. Turkey has be complaining longer that they have to stop Kurdish terrorists. Trump and Erdogan were in agreement. If America stayed, we'd have to go against Turkey, our ally and commit to nation building for the Kurds which is not in American interests.
By the way, so there are no surprises, Trump is trying very hard to also get our troops out of Afghanistan even though the Taliban will probably be able to take over again. Sure there are quasi realistic peace talks going on between American, Taliban and the current Afghanistan government. Meanwhile the Taliban is getting stronger and has taken over more provinces than ever. They're talking but know that Trump wants to pull out. So they biding their time. Trump may change his mind and stay or keep a small force. But getting out of ME wars where we're in direct conflict is his plan. So when it happens, you'll hear the same old complaints from all the Neocons and Democrats how we're abandoning our allies on the battlefield. So for those nations who think that shouldn't happen, you now have plenty of time to send your own troops into Afghanistan to pick up the slack and defend the Afghans. Don't complain later.
