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By Jay Deshmukh and Sabah Jerges
BAGHDAD: Iraqis, bitterly divided
along sectarian lines and reeling from a brutal insurgency, are
gloomily awaiting a US report that could signal an exit strategy for
American troops from their war-torn country.
Political leaders are bracing
themselves for a negative assessment of their efforts to forge
national unity in the nation of 27 million Shiite, Sunnis and Kurds
torn by sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands of
Iraqis.
General David Petraeus, head of
US-led forces in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker are due to give a
key testimony to the US Congress on Monday, ahead of a White House
report on political and military progress in Iraq due by September
15.
But Iraqi leaders are keenly
aware that they are unlikely to be depicted in glowing terms.
An independent US official
auditor on Tuesday branded Iraq’s government “dysfunctional”
in a report that did not make appetizing reading for Iraqi leaders.
“The Iraqi government met
three, partially met four and did not meet 11 of its 18
benchmarks,” the Government Accountability Office said in its
report.
“Overall, key legislation has
not been passed, violence remains high, and it is unclear whether
the Iraqi government will spend $10 billion in reconstruction
funds,” the report said.
Crocker last month hinted at how
the cards are likely to fall, when he candidly described political
progress in Iraq as “extremely disappointing.”
Some Iraqi leaders are hoping the
Petraeus and Crocker judgments will at least influence the White
House as well as US lawmakers into giving more time to embattled
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to continue the efforts he began 14
months ago to bridge the deep distrust between Shiite and Sunni
communities.
“I know the report will point
out the negatives of the government, but I hope it will consider
that reconciliation is a complicated process and needs time,” said
Hamid Muala al-Saedi, MP from the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, a
powerful Shiite party in Maliki’s ruling coalition government.
Saedi said Maliki needed more
“time and space” to bridge the mutual distrust within the
leaders that can then percolate down to the communities at large.
“We do not have a thermometer
to measure how much progress has been made,” he said.
“But there is progress as we
are discussing the reconciliation law and other such issues. Nobody
seems to notice them,” Saedi said, adding the White House should
even consider delaying the release of its report.
Maliki and other top leaders last
month pledged to ease restrictions on members of toppled dictator
Saddam Hussein’s former Baath party on filling government and
military posts, in a move to boost the reconciliation process.
They have also put a key law on
dividing up the spoils from Iraq’s vast and lucrative oil reserves
on their agenda for a parliament session which began on Tuesday.
The United States says the oil
law is a key indicator of national reconciliation.
But the country’s former elite
Sunni Arabs have lost faith in Maliki’s leadership.
“The government has failed on
all sides. It should resign. It needs to get out so that people can
breathe,” said Omar Abdul Sattar, a lawmaker from the National
Concord Front, the main Sunni Arab bloc in the assembly.
Blaming Maliki for much of the
failures besetting the country, Sattar said it was not a question of
how much time was required to bring about reconciliation but of
“intentions.”
“To do good deeds, you do not
need time, you need good intentions. In fact respect for Maliki
would rise if he quits and allows a new government to be formed,”
Sattar told AFP.
“This is what Iraqis want. We
do not want to listen to Crocker and Petraeus. We would rather hear
what Iraqis have to say.”
Calls by US legislators last
month for Maliki to be replaced have subsided however and US
President George W. Bush publicly endorsed the premier during a
surprise visit to Iraq on Monday.
“My message to Maliki is
you’ve got a lot of work to do and whatever decision is made in
Washington, D.C., is all aimed at helping you achieve what is
necessary to get the work done,” Bush told reporters.
Sattar’s colleague in the Sunni
bloc, Salim Abdullah, said that while Bush had thrown his weight
behind Maliki in public, the support has come with conditions.
“This was evident when Bush
asked [Maliki] about the reasons for the Front’s withdrawal and
the possibilities of meeting its demand,” he said, referring to
the bloc’s August boycott of Maliki’s cabinet.
On the military front—the other
key plank of the much-awaited report—Bush during his flying visit
to Iraq signaled a possible cut in troops citing recent security
gains in the province of Anbar, a hotbed of anti-American
insurgency.
Since Bush made his comments, the
refrain has been picked up by top US generals, including Petraeus
himself as well as his second in command, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno.
According to Odierno, the lead up
to the holy month of Ramadan has been relatively peaceful and if the
trend continues during the fasting period, it would serve as “a
big indicator” for a possible reduction in forces.
--AFP
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