Thorn Removed

More than two decades after the 2003 invasion, the withdrawal of the remaining US-led coalition forces marks a historic moment for Iraq. The country can finally close one chapter of a war and occupation that devastated its institutions, displaced millions and helped unleash years of insurgency, sectarian bloodshed and regional instability.

This is also a moment of remembrance. Iraqis paid the overwhelming price for a war pushed by a coalition in Washington that included influential neoconservatives, many of whom saw Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, alongside Iran and Syria, as a threat to Israel and believed remaking the region would serve American and Israeli strategic interests.

The troops are leaving, but American influence is not. Washington will continue providing training and intelligence support. Iraq’s oil revenues remain tied to financial arrangements in the United States, while American firms retain major positions across energy and infrastructure. Political and military influence built over two decades will not disappear with the last uniform.

For many Iraqis, therefore, the withdrawal is a moment of celebration, but it should not be mistaken for complete sovereignty.

Iraq’s task now is to reclaim genuine control over its security, resources, institutions and foreign policy. That means confronting the deeper economic and political mechanisms through which outside powers can shape Iraqi decisions.

The Middle East is changing, and changing fast. Iraq now has the chance to define its place within that transformation.

The American soldiers may be gone, but extracting the American thorn from the land of the Tigris and Euphrates will take far longer. September 30 is an ending. Iraq must now make it a beginning, after more than two decades of external interference.

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