Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan made his first visit to Iraq on Tuesday to discuss the U.S. military’s future in the country in the wake of comments from President Trump that jeopardized plans for an ongoing counter-terrorism presence.
Shanahan, a longtime Boeing executive who was tapped to lead the Pentagon in December following predecessor James N. Mattis’ sudden resignation, was expected to meet with Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi and other Iraqi and U.S. officials.
His visit occurs as the Trump administration seeks to wind down the operation against Islamic State, the extremist group that took over large swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
Pentagon officials have been considering shifting some American troops from Syria into Iraq after Trump’s unexpected December announcement that he would withdraw all 2,000 U.S. service members there. There are about 5,000 U.S. troops next door in Iraq, supporting local forces as they seek to ensure that remaining Islamic State cells cannot stage another full-fledged insurgency.
Militants have continued to conduct isolated attacks since a lengthy 2017 siege to retake Mosul, the Iraqi city that served as their base for three years.
Shanahan’s brief stop in Iraq follows a one-night visit to Afghanistan and takes place as the White House considers nominating him to become Trump’s second Defense secretary.
The selection of Shanahan, who has served as deputy Pentagon chief since mid-2017, would be a shift, given that he is an industry veteran and relative newcomer to military policy. He is the first person since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks who had not visited either Iraq or Afghanistan, the countries whose counterinsurgency wars have consumed the military’s attention for nearly two decades, before taking over at the Pentagon.