{"id":61809,"date":"2019-07-17T00:13:12","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T00:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/07\/17\/us-must-maintain-a-strong-diplomatic-and-military-presence-in-iraq-to-counter-irans-influence-experts-say\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T07:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:01:16","slug":"us-must-maintain-a-strong-diplomatic-and-military-presence-in-iraq-to-counter-irans-influence-experts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/flashpoints\/2019\/07\/17\/us-must-maintain-a-strong-diplomatic-and-military-presence-in-iraq-to-counter-irans-influence-experts-say\/","title":{"rendered":"US must maintain a strong diplomatic and military presence in Iraq to counter Iran\u2019s influence, experts say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 To counter Iran\u2019s growing influence in the Middle East, the U.S. must maintain a strong diplomatic and military presence in neighboring Iraq, experts from the State Department and the Pentagon said at the Near East and Counterterrorism subcommittee hearing Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, Iran has expanded control in the Middle East region by investing heavily in Iraq, according to Joan Polaschik, deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. spent $20 billion between 2003 and 2011 on the Iraqi military, but it wasn\u2019t enough to stop the rise of the Islamic State group and its attacks against Iraq, which required spending another $5 billion, Michael P. Mulroy, deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He noted that expenditure on U.S. troops in Iraq had gone down from $150 billion a year in 2008 to $15 billion in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything we are doing right now is more toward the economy of forces and also towards normalization,\u201d Mulroy said. \u201cWe are moving toward a traditional country team model. And we will start standardizing, modernizing and normalizing our spending as we do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t