The public and published reason that U.S. military units were pulled out of Iraq is that it became impossible to conclude a status of forces agreement with the Maliki government. One suspects that the overriding reason was that President Obama simply did not want them there. And this seems the more likely explanation since the president is now sending troops – though not many and almost certainly not enough – back into that country with no SOFA agreement. As Eli Lake and Josh Rogin of the Daily Beast report:

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