Uneasy calm in Iraq as US troops withdraw

With the completion of the withdrawal of 28,500 US troops posted in the recent military build up in Iraq, the country for now is taking in a gasp of fresh but temporary calm. According to Pentagon only 490 deaths have been reported in the month of June, a far cry from 3,700 Iraqi deaths in the fall of 2006. This has given some breathing space even to U.S. officials and politicians. In Baghdad, people now can be found roaming on the streets, going to bars and generally conducting the normal peace time activities, though restricted to aware confines of their own districts. Tension, though, is prevalent across the land. The usual kidnapping, suicide attacks, and assassinations still occur but added to that is the question of what after the US withdrawal? The internal and difficult question over the distribution of power in the future is as yet unsettled and unanswered and thus, a cause of uneasiness among the competing groups. The US invasion has brought out the communal divides of the region into an open and seemingly unending chaos. The Shias and the Sunnis are still hammer and tongs at each other. Their fear and resultant hatred is deep and historic, though hopefully not permanent. The issue of Kurdish nationality has not yet been resolved and then there are these various armed militia including the Al Qaeda which are now omnipresent in Iraq. Even the state armed forces are no less than local mobs. Also, this temporary thaw cannot be a permanent one unless the international power play that is operational in the region is resolved. America is debating its claim on Iraqi oil in lieu of the price it paid to bring ‘freedom’ to the Iraqis. Its recent proposal to control Iraq’s skies and establish its troops forever in Iraq was rejected by the Maliki government. Iran also has its interest involved in Iraq being vacuumed of American presence and Turkey is actively involved in the Kurdish question. Source: Los Angeles Times