“There is no way to turn back now.”
Interim Iraqi President Ghazi Al-Yawer, after sovereignty was turned over Monday to the Iraqi government.
Time will tell whether the statement above was one of determination or naivete. For now, we can be grateful for the passing of one important milestone in the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
For many Iraqis, the handover of sovereignty from U.S. officials to the interim Iraqi government – even though it came two days ahead of schedule – is no more than symbolic. For others, perhaps most, it’s a cynical attempt to legitimize a continued military occupation that numbers some 145,000 troops, most of them American.
Polling shows that the vast majority of Iraqis see coalition troops as occupiers, not liberators. U.S. forces get little credit for trying to quell insurgent attacks that kill Iraqis. Most Iraqis simply want the Americans to leave, perhaps hoping against hope that the violence will stop as a result.
Clearly, that’s not going to happen soon. Iraq is a fractured country, and foreign insurgents are attempting to take advantage. Security is still Iraq’s No. 1 need, and the interim government can’t provide it. So U.S. and coalition forces will stay for now, and will surely take more casualties.
Still, Monday’s milestone was meaningful. Had the deadline for the handover not been met, the United States would have lost all remaining credibility regarding its intentions. With a U.N. deadline for national elections only six months away, and an agreement Monday that gives NATO a role in training Iraqi troops, there is a glimmer of light at the end of the occupation tunnel.
Yet the security burden will remain on U.S. shoulders. Our NATO allies clearly have no appetite for direct involvement on the ground in Iraq, and will let the United States and Great Britain finish what they started.
The goal should be to do so as quickly as possible. The emphasis for coalition forces must be on defeating the insurgency, or at least beating it back, while getting Iraqi troops ready to play a lead role in maintaining order. Without some level of security, free elections will be impossible.
In the meantime, Iraqis must take meaningful steps toward developing a working democracy if they are to determine their own future. In the end, it will be up to Iraqis to ensure their own self-rule. Democracy is not something the United States can force upon them. An effort to do so would result in the military quagmire so many Americans have dreaded.
Monday’s handover represents a step in the right direction, and a reason for hope. But that hope will only be realized if true Iraqi sovereignty, in the form of free and fair elections, comes soon.
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