The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair

podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair.

That's patreon.com slash LawFair.

Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair

no bull and the aftermath.

And so when it comes to the reaction of paramilitary groups that are targeted in Syria or in

Iraq, the distinction might be made legally, the distinction might be made to the US.

It might even be made to Prime Minister Kaldami's office, but at the end of the day, it's

going to amount to a likelihood of retaliation of the US within Iraqi territory just because

it's happening in Abu Kemal right across from, you know, Ma'am in Iraq.

It doesn't mean that the response to what will happen in Iraq.

I'm Benjamin Wittis and this is the LawFair podcast March 1, 2021.

The United States hit targets in Syria associated with two Iraqi militias last week in the

first military operations of the Biden administration. We thought it would be a good opportunity

to catch up on the situation on the ground in Iraq where politics are as always wild and

woolly and super, super complicated.

Joining me on LawFair live before a live audience were LawFair's senior editor Scott Anderson,

who of course served in Iraq in the embassy there, as well as Marcine Al-Shamari, a post-doctoral

fellow at the Brookings Institution's Foreign Policy Program and an expert in domestic

Iraqi politics.

We talked about who the groups are that the US attacked. We talked about the constellation

of forces in the current Iraqi government. We talked about the legal authority for the attack

...