This is a CBSI on the World. I'm John Bachelor. I welcome Cameron McMillan

a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy center on

military political power along with his colleague the senior director of

same Bradley Bowman to address a matter that is not clear at this moment. These two gentlemen write at

Defense News that there is talk. Right now it looks fairly official because it

comes from SNCOM that over the next year or two the US

presence military presence in Iraq will be withdrawn. At the same time there are

questions to answer about what this means for the security of Iraq, Syria, and Jordan, for the security of our allies in the Middle East, and for the possibility of transnational attack by the IRGC, Hezbollah cadres, and most importantly ISIS.

Gentlemen, a very good evening to you.

Brad I begin with you, the problem here is that I didn't know this was going on, so I'm learning very quickly.

The U.S. has a military presence.

My reporting says that in the most recent conflict in the Middle East some of those

outposts have been attacked by elements of the Hezbollah called Kataib

Hezbollah based in Iraq.

ISIS is new to me.

Have we seen attacks by ISIS on the military outposts out there fighting ISIS?

Good day to you, Bradley.

Good day to you, John as well.

And it's a real pleasure to be here with my colleague,

Cam McMillan, who is a great colleague and is a veteran of Iraq.

And I'm eager to hear from him on these issues.

But just some quick context for your

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