(TheLibertyRevolution.com) – The United States is withdrawing more troops from the Middle East, and it’s not just because of a recent peace accord with the Taliban.
Troops that the U.S. sent to the Middle East following the drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s top commander, are now being withdrawn from the region as Iran experiences one of the worst outbreaks of coronavirus in the world.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, nearly 1,000 U.S. soldiers have returned from Kuwait over the last two weeks, and approximately 2,000 more are expected to come back soon as well. This represents a scale back of the troops that President Donald Trump sent to the region following the Soleimani attack, as a potential defense should Iran decide to attack Americans or targets of their allies.
As of yet, Iran hasn’t initiated a major attack on the U.S. in the Middle East, although it did attack some of our positions within Iraq. Those attacks, which were ballistic missile strikes, left some troops with traumatic brain injuries and/or concussions.
The U.S. presence in the Middle East increased by 10,000 — from 80,000 to 90,000 — after the strike on Soleimani, but the Trump administration is likely to scale down on that considerably in the near future. The president has made promises to do so ever since his election back in 2016, and he has kept up that promise thus far.
The peace agreement with the Taliban will see a withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, and the outbreak of the coronavirus in Iran will see the withdrawal of even more in what may be seen as a precautionary measure.
Outside of China, Iran has been one of the hardest-hit countries by the coronavirus, along with Italy and South Korea. As of the morning of Tuesday, March 10, there were 7,161 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 237 deaths reported as a result of it. Some lawmakers in the U.S., though, believe Iran is not reporting “horrific numbers” of deaths related to the virus.
The Trump administration may be withdrawing troops from the reasons to protect them from possible infection of coronavirus, and also because of lessened fears that Iran will attack while they are going through a crisis trying to deal with it. Reports have suggested that at least 10% of the members of the Iranian parliament have been infected with coronavirus.
While that threat, or perceived threat, would seem to remain low for a little while until things were under control, there is no guarantee it will remain low for very long. Iran has proven time and again its willingness, if not eagerness, to attack and put pressure on the U.S., so it wouldn’t be a total shock to anyone if they decided to launch a strike while thousands in their country were suffering from coronavirus.
