Pipedreaming in Iraq

June 5, 2008

Pipedreaming in Iraq

THE US is putting up a brave front and asserting that it is confident of working out a new security agreement with Iraq by July although negotiations have yet to make any headway. It wants to sign twin agreements with the Iraqi government on the status of US military forces in Iraq after 2008 and a framework for diplomatic relations. The agreements will give a legal basis to US troops to stay in Iraq after Dec. 31, when their United Nations' mandate expires.
Effectively, the agreements will closely bind Iraq with the US, allowing Washington to call the shots in Baghdad in matters that involve US strategic interests and also offering some form of legitimacy for a permanent US military presence in the country.
Many Iraqis are opposed to the US plans. Last Friday, thousands of Iraqis answered a call by Shiite leader Moqtada Al Sadr to protest against the proposed agreements.
Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, the senior most Shiite cleric in Iraq, is also against any such stratic tie-up with the US. In fact, Sistani has reportedly issued fatwas that endorse attacks against the US-led foreign forces in the country as resistance against occupiers.
The combined opposition of Sistani and Sadr makes it hardly likely that the US would realise its objectives in Iraq.
Indeed, the Iraqi government depends on the US for survival, but it could not sidestep the majority opinion in the country. It is seeking a compromise formula that would dilute opposition to the proposed agreements and that is why Washington and Baghdad could not agree even over what should be in the documents. No one is taken in by US officials' insistence that both agreements being negotiated with Iraq were based on "recognition of and respect for the fact of Iraqi sovereignty."
The problems that Washington faces in advancing towards the agreements highlight the reality yet again that the US has failed to achieve its strategic objectives of its invasion and occupation of Iraq. Washington is refusing to accept defeat and is still entertaining hopes that it could somehow bulldoze its way through while it is clear to the rest of the world that the US is fighting for a lost cause in Iraq. And that spells more trouble ahead.