The general in charge of U.S. Southern Command said Friday there were "other ways" for Washington to have withdrawn soldiers from Iraq rather than removing almost all troops from the country back in 2011 and declaring an end to the war there, and he did not deny that President Obama made a mistake by doing so.
Gen. John Kelly, who served three tours in Iraq prior to taking command of Southcom, made his comments during a press conference at the Pentagon.
Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin asked Kelly for his assessment of how the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been waged in recent years and what he thinks "could have been done differently so maybe ISIS and the Taliban wouldn't be as resurgent as they are right now."
The general chose to only speak about Iraq because he has experience there, saying that he hears ground commanders in Iraq wanting to keep "as many troops there for as long as [possible]."
Kelly also described how U.S. troops on the ground helped train and organize Iraqi forces to become effective on there own, but there were always American advisors to assist the Iraqis.
"To keep sufficient numbers of intel people to provide obvious intel, advisors to critique the commanders and the NCOs [non-commissioned officers] after they're out on operations" would have been helpful, according to Kelly.
He gave specific examples of American personnel providing support to Iraqis, even when they collapsed in battle, especially in Anbar Province, which is the Sunni heartland of Iraq where the Islamic State has been able to gain a strong foothold since 2014.
"The mentorship, the advising, is what makes those things," the general added. "The equipment is important, but it doesn't come close to having people that are just with them. And over time, less and less involvement until you come to some steady state number of people."
"So you're saying it was a mistake to pull out of Iraq?" Griffen then asked.
Kelly did not say no, instead responding, "I'm saying that there was other ways to have done it at much smaller numbers than we had there, certainly at the height of the war."
President Obama had promised to end the Iraq War during his 2008 campaign and did so in 2011. He withdrew almost all troops from the country and announced in October of that year, "After nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over."
The move was controversial, with both Washington and Baghdad expecting some troops to remain behind with a residual force and some top U.S. military officials critical of the American pullout.
Negotiations between Obama and then-Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki broke down as both sides failed to negotiate a Status of Forces Agreement to keep American troops in Iraq.
Some commentators, analysts, and politicians argued that Obama could have done more to make sure a sufficient force remained in the country to ensure that a fragile Iraqi government and military remained strong enough to prevent the country from returning to sectarian civil war. Critics say the president was just trying to fulfill his campaign promise regardless of the security implications. Others cite how the agreement negotiated by George W. Bush before he left office was set to expire in 2011 anyway and argue it was time to bring American soldiers home.
After the U.S. withdrawal, Maliki, who is a Shiite Muslim, pursued sectarian policies that targeted Iraq's Sunni minority. This factor helped lead to the resurrection of the Islamic State jihadist group, which had been driven underground by the U.S. surge of troops into Iraq in 2007 and 2008.
ISIS was able to grow in power as more Sunnis became disgruntled by the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad and the atrophying Iraqi military, which suffered from the removal of its U.S. trainers, proved unwilling to ultimately stop the group when it began to take swaths of territory.
ISIS then went on the offensive in 2014, declaring a new caliphate in June and maintaining multiple strongholds in Iraq through today.
The American withdrawal also allowed Iran to gain more influence over the government in Baghdad and challenge U.S. gains in stabilizing the country. Today, the number of Shia militiamen in Iraq, who largely answer to Tehran, is double that of the Iraqi army.
Since the rise of ISIS, Obama has redeployed troops to Iraq, with about 3,300 currently in the country to counter the jihadist group, and there are growing calls for the president to put conventional forces on the ground in addition to Special Forces already there.
Kelly's press conference comes as he is set to retire at the end of the month.