At the dawn of March 20, 2003, when the sky of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, was illuminated by flames erupting from the first salvos of Tomahawk missiles, that moment not only signaled the fall of an authoritarian political regime, but was also the launch of a violent military adventure. On Iraqi soil, Washington collided with a political and social geography steeped in history and complexity. The illusions of a quick resolution turned into a costly security and strategic quagmire that exhausted the Pentagon’s doctrine, changed the regional balance of power, and linked Iraq’s present and future to the dialectic of national sovereignty and foreign presence for more than twenty-three years.

Published on: 09/30/2026 - 10:06

In early 2024, Iraq launched the work of the Joint Supreme Military Committee (HMC) with the United States. This is the committee that spent months of intensive operational assessment reviewing the danger levels, the combat and armament readiness of the national security services, and the surrounding environment.

These discussions culminated in the issuance of the joint statement of the Supreme Military Committee between Baghdad and Washington, and subsequent statements issued by the Iraqi Prime Minister’s Media Office and the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, officially announcing the end of the American military presence and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Iraq by September 30.

This announcement does not represent merely a logistical step to reposition soldiers and equipment, but rather it is a significant strategic turning point that dedicates the restoration of the Iraqi state to its full sovereignty over its lands and airspace, culminating in an arduous negotiating path that moved Iraq from the sphere of “imposed security guardianship” and the “open arena for conflicts” to the space of a “full-fledged state” that manages its international partnerships in accordance with its highest national interests and the rules of international law.

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From toppling the statue of Saddam to the dismantling of the state (2003 - 2006)

The American military machine set off towards Baghdad without explicit, legitimate cover from the Security Council, bypassing widespread international rejection and strong opposition within the corridors of the United Nations, based on pretexts regarding Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction and the existence of alleged links with international terrorism. These pretexts quickly collapsed in the face of inspection committee investigations and subsequent confessions.

Read also: Washington and Baghdad are about to begin talks to end the mission of the US-led international coalition in Iraq

The capital's walls collapsed on April 9, 2003, with the scene of the toppling of the famous Paradise Square statue. However, the euphoria of the quick victory that haunted Washington's hawks quickly dissipated as the American civilian governor, Paul Bremer, assumed his duties as head of what was called the "Coalition Provisional Authority."

Bremer committed what the reports of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) unanimously classified as the “original strategic sin.” He issued his first order to uproot the Baath Party from all administrative and academic structures, and then followed it with Order No. 2 ordering the immediate dissolution of the Iraqi army, the ministries of defense and information, and all security, intelligence, and customs formations.

With the stroke of a pen, half a million trained men carrying weapons were thrown into the cycle of unemployment and marginalization, stripped of their salaries and societal status, creating a huge institutional and security vacuum that the occupation forces were unable to fill.

This measure turned into living fuel that melted in the crucible of popular rejection of the foreign presence. The spark of violence and guerrilla warfare broke out in the western and northern cities, and American forces suffered heavy losses in urban environments that were not trained to fight their battles.

The first and second battles of Fallujah took place in 2004, in parallel with the outbreak of the “Mahdi Army” uprising in the cities of the south and the suburbs of Baghdad, revealing to the world the inability of the modern military arsenal to impose stability with the force of iron and fire, while the infrastructure of electricity, water, and health was collapsing under the weight of comprehensive security chaos.

On February 22, 2006, terrorist groups infiltrated and blew up the gilded dome of the Shrine of the Askari Imams in Samarra. The targeting was not just an act of sabotage, but rather it was a shockwave that sparked a fierce sectarian civil war, turning the streets and alleys of Baghdad into theaters of identity-based killing and organized forced displacement.

The American soldier was drowned in a whirlpool of conflict between sectarian militias and Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia cells led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and the pictures of unidentified bodies scattered in the water canals became blatant evidence of the inability of the American occupation strategy, and the proximity of Mesopotamia to the brink of rupture.

The saga of the first withdrawal (2007 - 2011)

In the face of the worsening human and financial exhaustion, and the escalating death toll among American soldiers that exceeded the barrier of four thousand dead, former US President George W. Bush found himself forced in early 2007 to announce a “troop increase” strategy by sending more than twenty thousand additional soldiers and appointing General David Petraeus as supreme commander of operations.

Petraeus adopted the principle of "counter-insurgency" by deploying soldiers at advanced guard points inside residential neighborhoods to protect civilians. However, the essential hinge in tipping the balance was not the military machine itself, but rather the success of the political understandings with the Sunni Arab tribes in Anbar Governorate, which crystallized in the "Awakenings" movement led by Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Risha.

The tribesmen realized that Al-Qaeda’s extremism and oppression represented an existential threat to their social fabric, so they became involved in confronting the organization and expelling it from city centers, which broke the backbone of terrorism and paved the way for a relative calm that enabled Baghdad and Washington to open the file of legalizing the military presence and finalizing the formula of Chapter Seven resolutions preserved in the archives of the United Nations and the UN Security Council.

Throughout 2008, Nouri al-Maliki's government engaged in arduous and complex negotiations, during which the capital, Baghdad, witnessed a heated debate between Washington's desire to establish strategic military bases and the insistence of the national forces on freedom from dependency. The negotiations resulted in the enactment of two historic laws that were ratified by the House of Representatives and officially published in the Iraqi Gazette, Issue No. 4102:

With the advent of the fall of 2011 and the administration of President Barack Obama trying to negotiate to maintain an advisory and training force not exceeding five thousand soldiers, the American demand collided with a categorical and unified Iraqi refusal regarding the clause of “judicial immunity.” Washington insisted that its soldiers not be subject to Iraqi courts and laws, which the Iraqi parliament and various political forces considered an unforgivable violation of the state’s sovereignty and national dignity.

In light of the impossibility of passing immunity, orders were issued for complete withdrawal, and on the morning of December 18, 2011, the last convoys of the Third Armored Brigade crossed the border towards Kuwaiti territory, with Iraq announcing that its entire territory had been restored and that it was free of any foreign base or soldier.

International Coalition Umbrella (2014 – 2021)

Only a few years passed until Iraq faced the threat of an existential threat, as the "Islamic State" organization took advantage of the accumulation of political tension and the explosive repercussions of the war in Syria, and on June 10, 2014, it launched a sweeping attack that led to the collapse of the defense system in Nineveh and the fall of the city of Mosul within hours.

The terrorist fireball rolled to devour Salah al-Din, Anbar, and areas of Diyala. The organization seized modern Western weapons arsenals and expanded until its positions were less than twenty kilometers from Baghdad International Airport and the outskirts of Erbil.

In the face of this imminent danger that threatened to tear apart the country's political map, the Iraqi government sent urgent distress calls and official memoranda to the UN Security Council, calling on the international community and the United States to provide immediate military aid and air support to repel the terrorist threat.

Read also: Iraq is heading to end the mission of the international coalition led by the United States on its soil

As a result, an international coalition was formed under the leadership of Washington and under the name “Operation Inherent Resolve,” which included more than eighty countries, but according to a new doctrine that completely avoided fighting ground battles with foreign infantry, and was limited to providing advanced air cover, collecting intelligence information, and supplying the armed forces with tactical weapons and specialized training.

The political and field situation worsened and regional tensions escalated on Iraqi soil, reaching a peak on January 3, 2020, when an American drone assassinated the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Forces, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, near Baghdad airport.

In response, the Iraqi Council of Representatives held an extraordinary session on January 5, 2020 and issued its binding Resolution No. 14 of 2020, calling on the government to end the presence of any foreign forces, withdraw the request for international assistance, and cancel the air sovereignty of those forces, which was translated by the government of Mustafa Al-Kadhimi through the “strategic dialogue” rounds.

This path resulted in an official announcement issued by the US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) in conjunction with the Iraqi National Security Advisory in December 2021, stipulating the complete end of the coalition’s combat missions and its presence being limited to training and technical advice tasks, within purely national bases that include approximately 2,500 American advisors.

Announcing the comprehensive withdrawal and launching the bilateral partnership

With the government of Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani assuming its constitutional responsibilities, it placed the issue of ending the presence of the international coalition at the top of its national and sovereign priorities. Based on field and military assessments, it was concluded that the remnants of the "Islamic State" organization have become completely incapable of posing a strategic threat to the nation's soil, and that the presence of foreign forces in their multilateral military form has become a source of security tension and internal and regional polarization.

In early 2024, Baghdad launched the work of the “Joint Higher Military Committee” (HMC) with the American side, which spent months of intensive operational assessment reviewing the levels of danger, the combat and armament readiness of the security services, and the surrounding environment. These discussions culminated in the issuance of the joint statement of the Supreme Military Committee between Baghdad and Washington, and subsequent statements issued by the Iraqi Prime Minister’s Media Office and the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, officially announcing the end of the American military presence and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Iraq by September 30, 2026.

This decisive withdrawal puts a final end to the phase of camps and external military missions, allowing the handover of all vital military installations and bases, most notably the Ain al-Asad base in Anbar Governorate and the Erbil bases, to the full control and sovereignty of the Iraqi armed forces.

This military evacuation does not mean a rupture between the two countries, but rather represents the natural and desired transition from the formula of the “International Alliance for Emergency Situations” to the formula of “equal bilateral relations,” which is based on the mechanisms of the Strategic Framework Agreement. Future relations will be limited to official arms contracts, the supply of spare parts and maintenance of advanced defense systems such as F-16 fighters and air defense radars, the exchange of joint intelligence information to combat terrorism, and the sending of military personnel for advanced training in international academies, without the need for a single foreign soldier to remain on the ground.

With the curtain officially drawn on the foreign military presence, Iraq stands on the threshold of a new era, an era in which its strength is not measured by the size of the alliances present on its land, but rather by its ability to maintain its internal unity and protect its sovereign decision from external tensions, so that Mesopotamia remains a free, sovereign and independent homeland that writes its future in the hands of its children.

Hussein Amara

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