What has America left behind in Iraq?
The last convoy of U.S. troops left Iraq on Sunday, formally concluding nearly nine years of war. It is telling of the condition America is leaving the country in that U.S. forces had been paying off tribal sheikhs—$100,000 a month—to secure stretches of highway leading south into Kuwait, in order to reduce the threat of roadside bombings and attacks on convoys as they departed. Can it be called a victory when a military force has to resort to bribery to secure its path of retreat?
America leaves the fledgling Iraqi democracy with an unstable government under the heavy influence of neighboring Iran, as insurgency attacks continue. Since U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraq has moved into Iran’s sphere of influence, and in just the few days since American forces left the country, a sectarian crisis has erupted, with the Shiites wasting no time in throwing their weight around.
Iraq’s Sunnis rejected a call for all-party talks on Wednesday after vowing to try to unseat Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. The Sunnis are furious over the Shiite-controlled authorities leveling terrorism charges against Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, putting an arrest warrant out for him, on the very day the Americans left.
The Sunni deputy prime minister, the next-most-senior Sunni politician, is also being targeted by Maliki, who has asked the parliament to remove him from office.
Hashemi claims the charges against him are a fabrication, and Washington appears to agree.
The “Sunnis, outnumbered about two to one by Shiites,” reports Reuters, “see it as proof that Maliki, now freed of the trammels of U.S. occupation, is determined to tighten his personal grip on government and to marginalize the Sunnis” (December 21).
Meanwhile, a series of bombings killed at least 57 people in mainly Shiite areas of Baghdad on Thursday, seen as a response to Maliki’s efforts to sideline the two Sunni leaders.
Watch for Iran—politically and otherwise—to further cement its hold on Iraq as it takes advantage of the power and security vacuum America has left behind.
