The Iraqi is unnerved by the clamour in many quarters in the US for withdrawing from the country. The US House of Representatives recently voted in favour for pulling out US troops by April next year. Calls for a pullout intensified after the release of the interim report on Iraq’s progress on the benchmarks set by the US, which said on the whole, progress was tardy. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki reacted angrily and told reporters that US was free to leave any time it wanted. Iraqis were capable of handling their own affairs. Later the country’s deputy foreign minister, Barham Salih, said that any hasty troop withdrawal would be an invitation to disaster. Max Boot of the Council for Foreign Relations echoes his stand. Salih further said,
But we need time and space. We need sustained support from the international community.
Iraq claims it is making progress on what the international community, especially the US, wants from it. Legislators of Shiite strongman Moqtada al Sadr recently announced their support to the government. So has the Iraqi Accordance Front consisting of 44 Sunni groups. Also steps are being taken about an investment law and corruption.
The UN seems to have accepted the Iraqi government’s line. U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro has called upon member states to increase aid to Iraq. Ironically the UN had cut back severely on its presence there after the Aug. 19, 2003 truck bombing at its headquarters in eastern Baghdad that killed at least 22 people, including the top U.N. official Sergio Vieira de Mello.
President Bush is hopeful and wants to give the Iraqi government more time. He thinks his Baghdad Plan and ’surge’ of more US troops will yield dividends.
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