Facing a growing coronavirus crisis, the French chief of staff announced that they are suspending all military operations in Iraq, and will be withdrawing all French troops back to France to help fight the coronavirus domestically.



With 26,000 confirmed cases in France, the military is being sought to do more to help with the pandemic, and that’s going to be more possible for them if they aren’t deploying troops across the world in other operations.



Iraq has made clear recently they wanted foreign troops out anyhow. France was only engaged in training there, and they have suspended that for the sake of getting the troops out of the country and back to France soon.



France is one of the nations most heavily effected by coronavirus, but it is also one of the larger militaries in Europe. This has left them with a choice between keeping foreign engagements going, or trying to help with the breakout, and that’s a choice many other nations will likely be facing soon.





Author: Jason Ditz Jason Ditz is news editor of Antiwar.com. View all posts by Jason Ditz