The United States is showing the “behavior of an empire” while not actually seeking to withdraw forces from the West Asia region, an analyst says.

Patrick Lawrence, a US political commentator and foreign affairs journalist, made the comments in an interview with Press TV on Wednesday about the continued presence of American forces in Iraqi soil.

“The real reason for the keeping American troops in Iraq is because the United States does not want to withdraw from any place in the Middle East or West Asia, where it has established itself,” Lawrence said. “This is the behavior of an empire… an imperial power, and whatever justification the United States offers can pretty much be ignored.”

The US military has reportedly deployed a C-RAM weapon system at a key base near Baghdad International Airport as rockets keep raining on its bases in the Muslim country.

The political commentator called the move “incremental reinforcement, and indeed expansion of the US presence,” concluding that  “American presence in Iraq is one large miscalculation.”

Lawrence also commented on the so-called Vandenberg Coalition, which describes itself as “a new network committed to advancing a strong and proud American foreign policy.”

The initiative by Trump-era conservative politician and lawyer, means “further adventure, further expansion of US influence,” according to the American analyst.

“We don’t have a foreign policy, we have a security policy, or one might even say a military policy,” he said. “Nothing good! I don’t wish to sound extreme but nothing good has ever come out of Elliott Abrams office.”

Iraqi resistance groups have pledged to take up arms against US forces if Washington fails to comply with the parliamentary order that applies American troops to leave the country.

Anti-American sentiments have been running high in Iraq since the US assassinated Iran’s anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, and the deputy head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in Baghdad on January 3, 2020.