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Monday, Dec 15, 2008
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Bush visits Baghdad to sign security pact

SOFA will govern the presence of 1,46,000
U.S. troops stationed in more than 400 bases
General Odierno: troops will stay in Iraqi cities in training role even after the June 2009 withdrawal date

— Photo: AFP

U.S. President George W. Bush with Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani at the Salam Palace in Baghdad on Sunday.

BAGHDAD: U.S. President George W. Bush made a surprise farewell visit to Baghdad on Sunday, five weeks before he hands over the task of overseeing the withdrawal from Iraq to his successor Barack Obama. Mr. Bush met his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani at the start of his fourth visit since U.S.-led troops toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime in April 2003 during a deeply unpopular war. His visit comes hot on the heels of a trip to Iraq on Saturday by U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who said the U.S. mission in the country was in its “endgame.”

Mr. Bush is due to meet Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the two will sign a ceremonial pact marking the adoption of an Iraq-U.S. security pact, which calls for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops by the end of 2011.

Iraq’s Parliament in November approved — after months of intense political wrangling — the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which also sets June 30 as the deadline for the pullout of combat forces from cities and villages.

The pact will govern the presence of 1,46,000 U.S. troops stationed in more than 400 bases when their U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year, giving the Iraqi government veto power over virtually all of their operations.

Mr. Gates, who Mr. Obama has picked to stay on at the Pentagon when he moves into the White House on January 20, told U.S. troops on Saturday: “We are in the process of the drawdown.” “We are, I believe, in terms of the American commitment, in the endgame here in Iraq,” he added.

Withdrawal date

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, General Raymond Odierno, who met Mr. Gates, said on Saturday that U.S. troops would stay in Iraqi cities in a support and training role even after the June target date for their withdrawal. As part of political bargaining leading up to the vote, Iraq agreed to demands by Sunni parties to hold a referendum on the accord no later than July 30.

In Iraq, Mr. Bush is also set to meet Mr. Talabani’s two Vice-Presidents, Parliament Speaker Mahmud Mashhadani, the President of the northern Kurdish government, Massud Barzani, and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, one of the most powerful Shia factions. The Shia radical movement of Moqtada al-Sadr, which strongly opposed the security agreement, said Gen. Odierno’s remarks on the support troops showed that Washington had no intention of sticking by any of the deadlines.

“As we predicted, the comments fly in the face of the security agreement,” said the head of the movement’s political bureau, Liwaa Sumeissim, on Sunday, just a few hours before Mr. Bush’s arrival.

Mr. Obama has said he favours “a responsible withdrawal from Iraq” within 16 months after taking office. While the security situation in Baghdad and other parts of the country has significantly improved, violence remains a major factor in Iraq’s everyday life. More than 4,200 U.S. troops and tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers have been killed in the country since the invasion. Problems continue to dog the massive economic reconstruction programme undertaken since the 2003 invasion.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that an unpublished U.S. government report had found that U.S.-led efforts to rebuild Iraq were crippled by bureaucratic turf wars, violence and ignorance of the basic elements of Iraqi society, resulting in a $100-billion failure. It cited a 513-page federal history of the reconstruction effort circulating in Washington in draft form among a tight circle of technical reviewers, policy experts and senior officials. — AP

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