Iraq Press Roundup

The Iraqi Parliament is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the bilateral security pact with Washington. If it passes, several observers predict an uptick in violence as anti-American cleric Moqtada Sadr issues a new call to arms against U.S. forces with his Promised Day Brigade.

The passing of the security pact by the Iraqi government in its heavily guarded Green Zone would be no surprise, al-Basaer newspaper of the Association of Muslim Scholars said Monday.

Passing the pact is a reward to the occupier for destroying Iraq

By agreeing to the pact, the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki showed that they are part of the invasion and are looking for commitments from the occupation forces to secure their political beliefs.

The initial rejection of several of the articles in the security pact, set to lay the groundwork for a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, was merely an attempt to convince the public the government was keen to preserve their interests, whereas in fact just the opposite was true, the newspaper said.

Regardless, the liberation of Iraq is drawing closer as the people are demonstrating in the streets of Baghdad in opposition to an agreement that only keeps the country under occupation. And, since the Iraqi government is subject to the will of the occupation, the people of Iraq are obligated now to defend their country.

U.S. military officials in Baghdad are likely to advise U.S. President-elect Barack Obama he needs to amend his pledge to pull combat troops from Iraq in 16 months, al-Ittihad newspaper said Monday.

Will Obama amend the timetable for U.S. forces withdrawal?

Pulling U.S. military forces and equipment out of Iraq in 16 months technically is close to impossible, the newspaper said. Several analysts predict the security gains in the country will be lost when American forces turn control over the borders and general military affairs over to the Iraqis.

Although the Iraqi security forces have proven capable of acting independently of their American counterparts, they remain an incomplete and incompetent force. With a prompt and complete U.S. withdrawal, Iraqi forces would have to switch from fighting insurgents to controlling the borders, a skill they have yet to learn.

Meanwhile, incorporating the Sunni paramilitary force, Sons of Iraq, into Iraqi national forces is still up for debate amid widespread caution over the move. In the meantime, al-Qaida is still operating in parts of the country, such as Mosul, suggesting a premature U.S. troop withdrawal may bring violence back to Iraq in full force.

Therefore, Obama has to use caution when examining any strategy in Iraq that calls for pulling combat forces from the country before security gains are maintainable.

The Iraqis are still in a state of confusion, the Baghdad-based al-Sabaah newspaper said Monday, over the various points in the U.S.-Iraqi military accord.

Iraq after the U.S. pullout

The Iraqi people are growing more and more concerned over parts of the agreement dealing with Iraqi sovereignty, the legality of the occupation and the legal aspects of American troop action outside military bases. The Iraqi people need a sound explanation of the implications of the deal, so they can understand its long-term impact on the country.

Sovereignty, for example, is one of the issues that require further explanation. Several critics point to the U.S. military bases in Japan and Germany under their Status of Forces Agreements and that the United States was able to act as a singular, dominating power by cutting Saddam Hussein's Iraq off from the rest of the world.

But when analyzing the situation on the ground in Iraq, it seems the American forces are there to bring benefits to the country, not revoke its sovereignty. Several Iraqis see no alternative to the bilateral agreement, but need more answers before rejecting the pact.

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(Edited by Daniel Graeber)