The Next Step in U.S.-Iraq Relations

The U.S. Pullout from Iraqi Cities

On June 30, U.S. troops officially withdrew from cities in Iraq, leaving security arrangements in the hands of the Iraqi army and police. While not a full withdrawal—there will still be 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and trainers and advisers will stay embedded with Iraqi units—this new phase in U.S.-Iraqi relations has spawned a lively international discussion regarding U.S. policy in the region and the future of Iraq. Below are several recent articles you may have missed that sample the conversation about the pullout.

Iraqis in Control of Their Own Destiny
The National, Editorial

More than a week of bombings by insurgents appeared to do little to deter Iraqis from celebrating the United States’s withdrawal yesterday from the country’s urban areas. Thousands attended a concert at the Baghdad zoo and saw firework displays. What is significant is that while many ordinary Iraqis took to the streets in celebration, they were protected by the nation’s own domestic security forces: it is on them, not the Americans, that the burden of civil protection now falls.

While Iraq must now take the lead role in ensuring its own security and stability, the US is not leaving the country entirely to fend for itself. Access the full article>>

Is it Getting Worse Again?
The Economist

American troops have already withdrawn from nearly all the towns—and have rarely been seen in them of late. Many joint American-Iraqi security posts have been dismantled. There will be no more routine American patrols, rare though they have already become. The Americans will, however, remain in bases nearby, on call in case Iraqi forces hit trouble. And in some places, especially in Mosul, where efforts to suppress the insurgency have been intensifying, the definition of city limits is being elastically interpreted, to let the main American base stay where it is, on the city’s edge.

But the Iraqis are slowly realising that Mr Obama really does intend to remove the bulk of his troops before 2011. So they may at last be starting to focus on passing long-delayed bits of important nation-building legislation, such as an oil-and-gas law, constitutional amendments, and even a law governing elections. Without a modicum of cohesion at the heart of government, how can Iraq’s security forces stick together in the face of sectarian or ethnic tension? Iraqis know that establishing a more cohesive and broader-based government is at least as important as beefing up the Iraqi security forces. Access the full article>>

A Chance for Turkish-Kurdish Peace
Henri Barkey, nonresident senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and professor of international relations at Lehigh University (Wall Street Journal)

The Turks have become embroiled in Iraq by launching counter-attacks against the PKK. Ankara initially even resisted the creation of the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), which they saw as another step toward Kurdish independence and irredentist demands on Turkish territory. But after 25 years of fighting, 30,000 mostly Kurdish deaths, and the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999 with U.S. help, the Turkish government and military establishment realize that they have little to show for the counterinsurgency campaign and see no clear end to the bloodletting. The PKK attracts as many recruits today as it did 20 years ago. . . .

Now there are signs of a possible resolution. For the first time in its 80-plus years of existence, the Turkish state is addressing the fate of its sizable Kurdish minority. . . . Turkish Kurds and the PKK too are signaling that they are ready for a compromise. . . . Washington is in a strong position to help because of its positive relationships with both Turkey and the Kurds. Access the full article>>

Laws Lag in Iraq, as Patience Wears Thin
Timothy Williams and Suadad Al-Salhy (The New York Times)

Popular support for Iraq’s democratic institutions is being undermined steadily by official corruption, yet the country has no comprehensive anticorruption law.

The country’s economy is dependent almost entirely upon oil revenue, but because there is no single law regulating the industry, there is widespread confusion about investment, production and lines of authority.

And parts of northern Iraq continue to be beset by ethnic and sectarian violence that could engulf the rest of the country in a new wave of warfare, but there is little prospect of a political resolution being offered any time soon to settle competing claims in the disputed province of Kirkuk.

There is a growing concern that if the country’s Parliament does not soon approve a series of critical legislative measures, Iraq’s democratic experiment could erode as America pulls back, militarily and politically. Access the full article>>