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U.S. Pulls Back As Iraqis Vote

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By ALISSA J. RUBIN

The New York Times

Published: February 2, 2009

BAGHDAD - Iraqis across the country voted Saturday in provincial elections that will help shape their future, but regardless of the outcome, it is clear that the Americans are already drifting offstage - and that most Iraqis are ready to see them go.

The signs of mutual disengagement are everywhere. In the days leading up to the elections, it was possible to drive safely from near the Turkish border in the north to Baghdad and on south to Basra, just a few miles from the Persian Gulf - without seeing a U.S. convoy. In the Green Zone - once host to the U.S. occupation government, and now the seat of the Iraqi government - the primary PX is set to close, and the Americans have retreated to their vast, garrisoned new embassy compound. Iraqi soldiers now handle all Green Zone checkpoints.

U.S. helicopters and drones may be in the sky, but Iraqi boots are on the ground. The Americans are already worried about securing the road to Kuwait because soon they will have to start hauling out much of the vast infrastructure they have built on bases across the country.

Not The Same Iraq Or U.S.

The end of an era comes not in a single moment, but it has become evident that the mood has changed, power has shifted, the world is not the same.

In the United States, many Americans view the war as already over, even though more than 140,000 U.S. soldiers remain on Iraqi soil.

President Barack Obama has made it plain that Iraq is not his war; he wants to focus on Afghanistan. In an economic crisis, there is simply not enough money for the country to keep spending hundreds of millions of dollars a day in Iraq.

Any arguments that remain in Washington about the shape and timing of the troop withdrawal this year seem almost moot here, given how much Iraqis want to show they can govern on their own and how much Americans want to hand over responsibility to the Iraqis so they can meet withdrawal deadlines.

This is not to suggest that the war is over. In two provinces, Nineveh and Diyala, counterinsurgency operations are still under way, and the military is tracking signs of activity by Sunni extremist groups in the troubled areas surrounding Baghdad.

For now, the rest of the country is mostly calm. The provincial elections will test political stability: whether Iraqis can begin to resolve still festering sectarian and ethnic tensions through the ballot box. The formal process of disengagement started in earnest in November, when the Iraqi parliament approved a new security agreement with the Americans that sealed the date of departure, by the end of 2011, and almost immediately changed the balance of power.

Psychological Reassurance

For both sides there is the feeling that something has changed and whatever happens next, Iraq will not return to the way it was.

The shifts are subtle, often unspoken. The U.S. military role now has less to do with protecting Iraqis and more with giving them the psychological reassurance that they can handle what comes their way. The Americans no longer tell the Iraqis what to do and the Iraqis, especially Iraqi army officers, no longer look to the Americans for approval. At least that is the case in areas where the fighting has stopped; it's less so in areas such as Mosul, where U.S. military might is still required to keep violence at bay.

The outlook of Iraqi citizens has changed as well. They are more confident that their problems are their own, and that the Americans cannot fix them and often have only made matters worse.

The elections on Saturday were a step toward a peaceful approach to settling disagreements among factions about the shape of the country. If the new governments are seated from north to south and east to west, the United States and Iraq can begin the next act in earnest.

If all goes well, "The United States will not need big troops here," said Jawad al-Bolani, the interior minister, a secular Shiite. "The Americans need to look at something besides security. Iraq needs America to start a new chapter."

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