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EZ SU IRAQ: THE END OF COMBAT OPERATIONS


As Obama declares end of combat in Iraq, its citizensmove forwardwith uncertainty


BY LEILA FADEL


baghdad— Onthe lastdayof the official U.S. combat mission in Iraq, there was no dancing in the streets, no celebratory gunfire and no sense that amilestone had been reached. U.S. troop levels have dropped


to just below 50,000, fulfilling an Obama administration pledge to move fromcombat to stability op- erations. But as the United States prepares to declare the end of its seven-year-long war, Iraqis are bracing for uncertainty. On Tuesday, Interior Minister


Jawad al-Bolani said that the country is on high alert and that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has created two security crisis cells — one for Baghdad and one for therestof Iraq.Thecellswould respond in case violence escalates in coming days. Bloodshed has increased as


Iraq nears the end of its sixth month without a government sincenationalparliamentaryelec- tions. Many Iraqis also say they worry that another country could fill the vacuumleft by the United States and that the security gains of the past two years could erode. “Right now we are in a state of


emergency. Our brothers in the Ministry of Defense are sleeping in the ministry until this stage is finished,”Bolani saidTuesday. Maliki met Tuesday morning


with Vice President Biden, who is making his sixth visit to Baghdad on behalf of the Obama adminis- tration. At the start of the meet- ing,Bidenquestionednewsmedia reports of an increase in violence. “It’s much safer,” Biden said.


Reporters followingthevicepresi- dent Monday were asked to wear body armor and helmets, and Biden was heavily guarded throughout his trip. Outside the heavily fortified


Green Zone, where many of Biden’smeetings took place, Iraq- is expressed fear and frustration. “We wanted change, and noth-


ing’s changed,” said Mohammed Imad, 21, leaning against a wall coveredwith old election posters. Despite the fears voiced in the


streets,Maliki declared Tuesday a day of “celebration.” “This isadaythatwill remainin


the memory of all Iraqis. Today, Iraq has become a sovereign and independent country,” the prime minister said on state television. “Unfortunately, we are facing a campaign of doubt.” “Whose celebration is this?”


Security incidents in Iraq Number of incidents per week against coallition forces and Iraqi authority


Attacks against Iraqi Authority Unexploded IEDs Detonated IEDs Close engagement


“Standoff” attacks (using weapons that do not involve close engagement)


2004 2005 SOURCE: Intelligence community assessment 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010


1,200 1,600


400 800


0 THE WASHINGTON POST


said Ibrahim Abdul Wahab, 57, a resident of Haifa Street in down- town Baghdad, where Sunni in- surgents were in control more than two years ago. “It’s his, not Iraq’s.Where are the promises of the planned democracy?” Last week, when coordinated


blasts rocked the country, killing more than 60 people, fliers and CDswere distributed in the street here. The flier declared that the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq wasbackandlisteditsoperations, residents said. “I see it in front of my eyes,”


Wahab said, referring to the re- newed bloodshed. “I see the road- side bombs, the attacks on the checkpoints. Al-Qaeda reached to this street again.”


U.S. troops left Iraq’s streets


more than a year ago, and Iraqis celebrated what they saw as their independence. But now those hopes appearmuted. “Howmanymartyrs have there


Topic: foreign


been since?” said Hadi Naji, 54. “How many widows, how many orphans, howmany refugees?” Since the 2003 U.S.-led inva-


Run Date: 08/ 01/ 2010 Size: 47p6 x 1.7”


Artist: alicia parlapiano


sion, Iraq has changed dramati- cally. Towering concrete blast walls encircle some Baghdad neighborhoods, and security checkpoints clutter the streets. People have lived through an in- surgency, U.S. offensives and a three-year civil war that killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and thousands ofU.S. troops. Attacks have dropped signifi-


iraq01-g.AAA PROOF1


cantly since their peak, butmajor disputes in the country remain unsettled. A U.S. intelligence official


speaking on the condition of ano- nymity said that al-Qaeda in Iraq is a shell of its former self and could not “credibly threaten the stability of Iraq’s government.” As troop levels dwindle, the official said, thebiggestworryis theinter- nal political conflict. “The greater concern is politi-


cal reconciliation,” the official said. Iraq still has no government and Kurdish, Shiite, Sunni and secularpartiesarenegotiatingata sluggish pace. True reconciliation between Iraq’s mosaic of ethnici- ties, sects and religions has never taken place, and if the govern-


FPO address from A1


to order the 2007 troop surge that led to a reduction in violence. Inhis remarks,Obama invoked


Bush, noting that his predecessor sat behind the same desk in an- nouncing thewar sevenyears ear- lier. He said much had “changed since that night.” Obama used the moment to


draw a lesson of bipartisanship. “It’s well known that he and I disagreed about the war from its outset. Yet no one could doubt President Bush’s support for our troops, or his love of country and commitment to our security,” he said. “. . . The greatness of our democracy is grounded in our ability tomove beyond our differ- ences, and to learn fromour expe- rience as we confront the many challenges ahead. And no chal- lenge is more essential to our security than our fight against al-Qaeda.”


A divided America It was the contested grounds


for the 2003 invasion thatmade it themost polarizing conflict since Vietnam. The Bush administra- tion insisted that Iraq’s dictator, Saddam Hussein, had stockpiled a lethal arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and that he posedathreat totheUnitedStates and its allies. But those claims were based on questionable intel- ligence, and no such weapons were ever found. The bitter na- tional argument over whether Bush hadmisled the country into war divided Americans and strained the country’s relation- ship with the world — ultimately setting the stage for Obama to ascend to the presidency. Obama, who traveled to Fort


Bliss earlier Tuesday tomeetwith veterans, paid tribute to themili- tary, saying he is “awed by their sacrifice.” The sacrifice is likely to contin-


JASON REED/REUTERS


President Obama visits with soldiers at Fort Bliss, Tex. Later in the evening, in his Oval Office speech, the president said he is “awed” by the “sacrifice” of the nation’s military. About 1.5 million troops served in Iraq over the course of the seven-year war; more than 4,400 were killed, and an additional 32,000 were wounded.


ue:Thoughcombatunitshave left Iraq, 50,000 troops remain as ad- visers and are almost sure to suf- fer further casualties. Thespeechcameataseemingly


arbitrary moment, on a deadline set by Obama himself and unre- lated to any progress on the ground in Iraq, where a govern- ment has not been formed and deadly violence shatters daily life. While thewar removed a dictator, it left civil society in tatters; elec- tricity is still sporadic, even in Baghdad. Obama,who has long contrast-


ed the Iraq war he opposed with the Afghanistan invasion he sup-


ported, linked the two oncemore. “Because of our drawdown in Iraq,we are nowable to apply the resources necessary to go on of- fense” in Afghanistan and else- where against al-Qaeda, he said. Obama also linked the ending


of thewar to theU.S. economy,his most pressing problem two months beforemidtermelections in which the Democratic Party expects to suffer. “Today, ourmost urgent task is to restore our econ- omyandput themillionsofAmer- icanswhohavelost their jobsback towork.Tostrengthenourmiddle class, we must give all our chil- dren the education they deserve,


and all ourworkers the skills that they need to compete in a global economy,” Obama said. “Wemust jump-start industries that create jobs, and end our dependence on foreign oil. We must unleash the innovation that allows new prod- ucts to roll off our assembly lines, and nurture the ideas that spring fromour entrepreneurs. Thiswill be difficult. But in the days to


come, it must be our central mis- sion as a people, and my central responsibility as president.”


An unsettled Iraq Obama spoke against a back-


drop of uncertainty in Iraq over whether the government and its security forces can keep the coun- try from becoming further desta- bilized. Nearly six months after


ment is not inclusive, it could instigate further violence. Even some senior U.S. military


officials in Iraq expressed doubt that nowis the time tomake such a significant change. If things start to unravel, they said, they will lack the resources to act. “I feel it is negligence to our moral and legal obligations to the Iraqi people,” one official said. “It’s too soon.” As U.S. combat operations offi-


cially ended Tuesday, a bombing killed two children — brothers — who were playing in the town of Haweja,west ofKirkuk. fadell@washpost.com


StaffwriterGregMiller inWashington contributed to this report.


‘The Iraqi people now have lead responsibility’


national elections, Iraqi politi- cians have been unable to settle onanewgovernment. Insurgents, meanwhile, havemanaged to pull off spectacular attacks, including one in August that leftmore than 60 Iraqi army applicants dead. Instead of cheering the American drawdown, Iraqis have been ap- prehensive, fearing a return to conditions fromtheworst days of thewar. Further challenges are on the


horizon:Under the status-of-forc- es agreement signed by Bush and the Iraqis, all remaining U.S. troops are scheduled to leave by the end of 2011. The Obama ad- ministration has left itself little room to alter those plans, saying that it would require a request from the Iraqis to leave troops behind and that no such request has beenmade.


“Operation Iraqi Freedom is


over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country,” Obama said. “This was my pledge to the American people as a candidate for this office. Last February, I announced a plan that would bring our combat brigades out of Iraq, while redoubling our efforts to strengthen Iraq’s security forc- es and support its government and people. That is what we have done. We have removed nearly 100,000U.S. troops fromIraq.We have closed or transferred hun- dreds of bases to the Iraqis. And we havemovedmillions of pieces of equipment out of Iraq.” kornbluta@washpost.com


Research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.


Excerpts from the address “Unfortunately, over the last decade, we’ve not done what’s necessary to


shore up the foundations of ourownprosperity.Wespent a trillion dollars at war, often financed by borrowing from overseas. This, in turn, has shortchanged investments in ourownpeople and contributed to record deficits. For too long,wehave put off tough decisions on everything from our manufacturing base to our energy policy to education reform.”


“Wemust project a vision of the future that’s based not just on our fears


but also on our hopes—a vision that recognizes the real dangers that exist around the world but also the limitless possibilities of our time.”


Obama’s depiction of al-Qaeda differs fromaides’ President Obama on Tuesday


night again identified the fight against al-Qaeda as the central reason for the war in Afghani- stan, but U.S. officials have said lately that the organization had been weakened and identified its Yemen-based affiliate as the most pressing threat to the United States. “We see al-Qaeda as having


KHALID MOHAMMED/ASSOCIATED PRESS


An Iraqi policeman stands guard at a checkpoint in Baghdad. WithU.S. combat troops gone, many in Iraq are unsure whether the security forces can keep the nation from sliding back into chaos.


suffered major losses, unable to replenish ranks and recover at a pace that would keep them on


offense,” a senior U.S. official told TheWashington Post last month, speaking on the condition of ano- nymity to discuss CIA assess- ments. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemen-based affiliate is known, is “on the up- swing,” the official said. “The relative concern ratios are chang- ing. We’re more concerned now about AQAP than we were be- fore.” CIADirectorLeonPanetta esti- mated in June that, “at most,” 50


to 100 al-Qaeda operatives were in Afghanistan. National security adviser James L. Jones has said that al-Qaeda had no bases in the country and “no ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies.” Panetta told The Post inMarch


that operations against al-Qaeda in parts of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan had seriously dis- rupted the organization. “We re- ally do have them on the run,” he said.


—Cameron W. Barr


KLMNO


WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2010


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