President Donald Trump has officially announced what has been taking place quietly on the ground for weeks: the United States is completing a full withdrawal from Iraq, and soon no American soldiers will remain in the country.
The announcement comes after weeks of reports on Iraqi social media showing American forces and equipment pulling out of bases across the country. In recent days, the pace of the withdrawal accelerated, with footage of convoys and base closures appearing more frequently online.
"Today I am pleased to announce that the last American soldier is leaving Iraq," Trump wrote on social media. "It has been a long time since those decisions that dragged us deeper and deeper into this swamp, but soon it will be just another part of history."
"This is a great day for America and beyond. We are leaving Iraq with the new Prime Minister al-Zaidi, someone I support and believe in, he won the elections by a large margin," Trump continued. "We decided that the time has come for America to come home. We came to fight the robes (ISIS) and it no longer exists. We're going home!"
