US ‘Enormously Disappointed’ by Iraq’s Failure to Protect US Troops

Iraq has promised to investigate rocket attack on US troops

The US State Department issued a statement Friday declaring themselves “enormously disappointed” by the Iraqi government’s failure to fulfill US demands to protect US and coalition forces in the country.

The US made a big deal of this last week, after US forces were hit with rockets at Camp Taji. The US attacked several bases belonging to Iraqi militias, then demanded Iraq make sure no one retaliated. There was some limited retaliation, which is why the US is so disappointed.

Iraq, for its part, has promised to investigate the rocket attack, but since they haven’t had time to do that and the US immediately started attacking people they thought might’ve conceivably done it, Iraq is also struggling to keep the situation calm, at a time when the government is crumbling and trying to get ready for early elections.

Iraq is between a rock and a hard place here, as there is almost nothing they can do to placate the US, and even approving of US actions, which amount to attacking parts of Iraq’s own security forces, is bad for internal stability.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.