Retired general who led troops in Iraq warns U.S. exit may give Iran, ISIS an opening

President Donald Trump speaks as Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster listens at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., in February 2017. Susan Walsh/AP hide caption

The last U.S. troops have left Iraq, more than two decades after the U.S.-led invasion and as the United States and Israel are at war with neighboring Iran.

Iraq is marking the withdrawal as a restoration of sovereignty. Retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who commanded U.S. troops in Iraq, says the timing could strengthen Iran and leave Iraq vulnerable to a resurgence of ISIS.

"I think it's not the right time," McMaster told Morning Edition . "This is going to embolden, I think, the Iranians to a certain extent, and it's not clear that there has been the enduring defeat of ISIS."

McMaster served 34 years in the Army and later became President Trump's national security adviser during his first term. In 2005, he commanded the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment during a major counterinsurgency campaign against al-Qaida in Tal Afar, a city in northwestern Iraq near the Syrian border. He later helped shape U.S. military strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan and is now a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

In his conversation with NPR's Michel Martin, he said a continued U.S. presence helped with intelligence gathering and support for Iraqi forces fighting ISIS. He also said Iranian-backed militias operating outside Baghdad's control remain a threat to Iraqi sovereignty.

The U.S.-led invasion opened more than a decade of war and upheaval that exacted an enormous toll on Iraqis. At least 200,000 Iraqi civilians were killed, according to Iraq Body Count, a U.K.-based independent organization that tracks civilian deaths using morgue records and other documentation. Millions more were displaced during the war and its aftermath.

Asked how the troops he led might view the withdrawal, McMaster said he hoped they would feel "tremendous pride." He called their fight against al-Qaida in Iraq "a righteous mission."