Edit: It's unclear what's going on with US Troops in Iraq

It was shared with their Iraqi counterparts. It wasn't a mistake - it was a draft. This indicates to you how closely these people work together - they shared drafts with each other to communicate what they thought they will eventually do or something close to it. It also tells us how these relationships are in trouble because someone from the very top decided to issue a threat of crushing sanctions. And while that statement from Trump is meant to look tough and cover up his embarrassment, Trump has always been favorite to pull out of Iraq - so eventually, they will pull out. It just has to be done in a "friendly" way to not look embarrassing for the US and not be a political issue for Trump. Trump doesn't give 2 cents about ISIS, he's more concerned about the Mexican and yielding power to the Russian and their allies for some strange reasons.

"Milley went on to say that the copy of the unsigned letter that was leaked to the press was a draft that was shared with the Iraqi military for the purposes of coordination and was never sent as a formal memorandum. He also said he believes that the draft was leaked by someone that the Iraqi military had provided it to."

 

I obviously misunderstood you. My bad! It’s something I’ve thought about recently. Scenarios where a return of the draft appears to be needed due to trump’s acts of madness. Another topic, and something I ardently oppose. You may have gotten that impression. ;-)

 

We still have our allies in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Israel. So we, unfortunately, are not out. But, I do agree with you that Putin seems to have done a pretty good job increasing his influence in Iran, Iraq, Syria, etc.

 

Iraqi PM tells US to decide mechanism for troop withdrawal

Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi has told the U.S. secretary of state to send a delegation to Iraq tasked with formulating the mechanism for the withdrawal of U.S troops from Iraq, according to a statement released Friday.

The statement, from the office of the Iraqi caretaker prime minister, said the request came in a telephone call between Abdul-Mahdi and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday night. It says Pompeo called the Iraqi premier.

Abdul-Mahdi’s comments to Pompeo suggests he was standing by his previous statements that U.S troops should leave Iraq despite recent signals toward de-escalation between Tehran and Washington following the tit-for-tat attacks that brought Iraq to the brink of a proxy war.

 

If I understand right, their parliament's resolution that foreign troops should leave was non-binding. So I guess the PM could have dropped it, but chooses not to.