Study: Baghdad needs institutional support

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- The next U.S. administration needs to retool its Iraq policy to focus more on institutional capacity than on courting political elites, an analysis says.

The congressionally funded U.S. Institute of Peace convened a round-table panel in Washington of Iraqi analysts and former officials to discuss the situation facing President-elect Barack Obama.

A corresponding report by USIP says that despite marked reductions in violence during the course of the year, U.S.-led forces should remain in the country to maintain the relative calm. Washington, however, needs to dictate that presence in a way that preserves national sovereignty. Foreign troops in Iraq should also avoid the temptation to use the country to intervene elsewhere in the region.

Meanwhile, the next U.S. administration needs to move forward the democratic process in Iraq by increasing the efficiency and capabilities of government institutions rather than supporting political parties and their leadership.

"One of the mistakes the (Bush) administration has made is pinning its support for an Iraqi government, not to the institutions, but rather to an individual," said Ghassan Atiyyah, a former professor at Baghdad University and a visiting fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Though U.S. national interests depend largely on the mission in Iraq, a strategy that puts Washington's interests ahead of Baghdad's may have a destabilizing effect, the report said.