Leave or stay: the issue of US withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq

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Abstract

The article examines the process of the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the specifics of American military presence in the two countries. The relevance of the topic is due to the ongoing US presence in Iraq and the continuing instability in the Greater Middle East. The aim of the article is to analyze and compare the processes of US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq and to find the reasons that determined the various results of the ending of the two military campaigns. In the study the following methods were used: generalization, system analysis, discourse analysis, analogy, induction, historical and comparative method. The novelty of the research lies in the identifying within one study the differences between the US military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq and determining the specifics of each campaign that influenced the course of the American troop withdrawal. The authors came to the conclusion that the main similarity of the US military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq is that the American troops conducted successful combat operations in both countries but strategic miscalculations did not allow them to consolidate their success what led to the general failure of both missions. Thus, the US was forced to seek ways to end the two campaigns. Washington managed to completely withdraw all of its troops from Afghanistan which was initially a priority. That happened because of the political will of different US administrations and due to the declining importance of the region. The long-term US actions in Iraq led to a noticeable destabilization of security there and a full-fledged withdrawal would worsen the positions of the Iraqi government and significantly reduce American influence in the Middle East in a period of growing instability and during the ongoing unprecedented escalation there since October 2023.

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