“It is the right time to be withdrawing from Iraq”

Pulling US forces out of Iraq today is timely, but equal to admitting that America never intended to restore stability in the region, says the British American Security Information Council’s Paul Ingram.

“They unseated Saddam Hussein relatively quickly and easily, but of course bringing security and stability to the country was a much, much bigger deal,” he added.

On Tuesday US President Barack Obama announced the official end of the seven-year military mission in Iraq. During his campaign for president in 2008 he promised to withdraw the troops from the war-struck region. The larger part of the forces is to leave the country now, but 50,000 are to remain in Iraq until the end of next year to assist Iraqi security forces.

According to Ingram, so far there is no sense that freedom or justice will take hold in Iraq anytime soon, but pulling the troops out of Iraq is likely to have a positive, rather than negative, influence on the situation.

“The best chance there is for Iraq for democracy and freedom is for the Americans to exit,” he said. “Because their presence itself is a very clear source of insecurity and reaction by many within Iraq.”

“American troops in combat formation in the country actually make more trouble than not having them there,” he added.