Ambassador Doug Silliman on What's Next in U.S.-Iraq Relations
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 8 November 2021
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The complicated relationship between Iraq and the United States is once again approaching a crossroads. Parliamentary elections held in Iraq last month promise a new government featuring a new cast of political forces with their own difficult histories with the United States. The United States, meanwhile, is approaching the self-imposed deadline by which it has promised to withdraw U.S. combat troops from the country, even as its diplomatic and military presences in the country have continued to come under attack by Iran-backed militias. To discuss these developments, Scott R. Anderson sat down on Lawfare Live with Ambassador Doug Silliman, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Iraq from 2016 to 2019 and was previously the deputy chief of mission and political counselor there. They talked about the Sadrist block that appears to have won the recent elections, what other challenges are facing the Iraqi state and what they all mean for the future of our bilateral relationship.
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:33.9 | I don't anticipate that the Biden administration is going to do in Iraq what they did in Afghanistan. |
| 0:40.5 | I think they're going to work with Prime Minister Academy and with the new government to |
| 0:45.3 | calibrate a continued American presence that causes the least possible concern to Iraqis |
| 0:53.2 | but provides the greatest possible support for the Iraqi government to help create that |
| 0:58.6 | continued independent Iraqi foreign policy and hopefully domestic force. |
| 1:05.0 | I'm Scott Aranterson and this is the LawFair podcast for November 8, 2021. |
| 1:10.4 | The complicated relationship between Iraq and the United States is once again approaching |
| 1:14.2 | across roads. |
| 1:15.6 | Parliamentary elections held in Iraq last month promise a new government featuring a new |
| 1:19.4 | cast of political forces with their own difficult histories with the United States. |
| 1:24.2 | United States meanwhile, it's approaching the self-imposed deadline by which it has promised |
| 1:28.2 | to withdraw US combat troops from the country, even as its diplomatic and military presences |
| 1:33.3 | in the country have continued to come under attack by Aranbacked militias. |
| 1:38.0 | To discuss these developments, I host a session of LawFair Live with someone who knows the |
| 1:42.0 | US-Arrak relationship like few others. |
| 1:44.7 | Ambassador Doug Silliman, who served as the US ambassador to Iraq from 2016 to 2019 and |
| 1:49.8 | was previously the deputy chief of mission and political counselor there. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Lawfare Institute, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Lawfare Institute and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.