Iraq is one of the U.S. government’s trophy screw-ups in the Middle East. From Jacob G. Hornberger at fff.org:
As a consequence of the war between Israel and the Palestinians, U.S. troops in Iraq have come under drone attacks, owing to anger arising from the U.S. government’s unconditional military support of the Israeli government. No U.S. troops in Iraq have been killed as a result of those attacks, but one civilian contractor died of a heart attack during one of the attacks.
U.S. officials have blamed Iranian-backed militia forces in Iraq for the attacks. One militia group, the Hezbollah Brigade, demanded that U.S. troops leave Iraq, declaring “Otherwise they will taste the fires of hell.”
The Pentagon currently has around 2,500 troops stationed on three bases in Iraq. Their mission is to advise and assist the Iraqi regime to resist efforts by ISIS to take control over the country.
One of the fascinating aspects of this phenomenon is how the U.S. mainstream press considers this situation to be perfectly normal. In news accounts of these attacks, no one in the mainstream press asks the obvious question: What in the world are U.S. troops doing in a country that is almost 7,000 miles from the United States? It’s just considered to be a normal part of life in a far-flung military empire that consists of around 900 military bases around the world.
They are in Iraq for the same reason they are in Syria. Israel wished it so.