I take them for their word when they say it wasn't. I have no reason to believe otherwise, aside from the timing, which isn't enough evidence IMO.
Did we get our soldiers back? Yup. Did we find out that a bunch of them dun fucked up to begin with? Yup. Did we get into an armed conflict with Iran? Nope.
Frankly, we are one of if not the richest nation on Earth. If we're not using our absurd wealth to buy people off, honestly I think we're doing it wrong. You can make the world a lot happier a lot faster by paying people to love you than by bombing them until they fear you.