Iraqi officials reportedly drove a hard bargain on the U.S. withdrawal they’ve just negotiated with American diplomats.
To which we say: Let them take advantage of us as much as they want, if it gets our troops out of Iraq more quickly.
The proposed new security pact – which was approved Sunday by the Iraqi cabinet – calls for a complete pullout of American forces by the end of 2011.
The combat drawdown would happen much faster. Some restrictions on U.S. military operations would take effect Jan. 1, and American troops would be withdrawn from Iraqi cities by June 30. U.S. casualties, which have already dropped dramatically in recent months, would be brought down further when Americans are no longer entangled in urban warfare.
Can the Iraqi military assume control of the deadly streets of Baghdad and Mosul so quickly? Iraqi leaders think so, and that’s what matters. It is, after all, their country.
America’s troops appear on the threshold of that blessed day when they will no longer have to protect once-unreliable or even treacherous Iraqi forces. Iraq has been accepting responsibility for more and more dangerous territory – the Anbar province, for example – with as much success as can be expected.
Keeping a lid on Baghdad will strain the capabilities of the Iraqi military, but it has to step up to that job sooner or later. As far as America is concerned, sooner is better than later.
It’s premature to declare victory in Iraq. Shiite and Sunni guerrillas can still launch devastating attacks, and they may do their utmost to break the Iraqi government’s hold on the cities. Iran did make some promising noises about the agreement Monday, which may signal an inclination to stop sabotaging the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad.
That Iraq has gotten this far, in the face of such deadly odds, is a triumph of American arms. Although the war was mismanaged for three years by the White House and Pentagon, U.S. troops still managed to hold the line against Iraq’s many guerrilla factions. Without enough forces, they had to fight an insurgency, survive the cross-fire of a Shiite-Sunni civil war, and try to restore Iraq’s infrastructure all at the same time.
It was a vicious, bloody, near- impossible job until Gen. David Petraeus finally arrived with a successful counterinsurgency strategy.
U.S. troops should take the Iraqis’ newfound confidence – reflected in their insistence that America begin standing down – as a high honor.
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