Final US combat brigade leaves Iraq

AT DAWN yesterday the last brigade of US combat troops crossed Iraq’s southern border and entered Kuwait, 12 days ahead of the deadline agreed in the US-Iraqi Status of Forces Agreement reached in 2008.

Although another 6,000 troops are set to leave before the 31st, the departure of the brigade – and their massive eight-wheeled Stryker vehicles used for transporting troops in war zones – marked the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the transition to Operation New Dawn.

This was not the first occasion Washington met a deadline before time: post-war chief Paul Bremer handed over to the interim government, formally ending the occupation, on June 28th, 2004, two days ahead of schedule.

US president Barack Obama declared: “We’re keeping the promise that we made when I began my campaign for the presidency.”

He said more than 90,000 troops had departed Iraq during the past 18 months. At peak deployment there were more than 165,000 US troops in Iraq.

The 50,000 troops to remain in the country are tasked with training and assisting Iraqi forces when needed until the end of 2011. Under the Strategic Framework Agreement which will govern long-term political and economic relations between the US and Iraq, the State Department is preparing to take over security for US facilities and training Iraqi police. Security contractors are set to be increased from 2,700 to 6-7,000.

Two embassy branch offices are to be established in the restive northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul, with consulates in Basra in the south and Irbil in the Kurdish autonomous region.

In spite of considerable pre-planning for the next phase, former US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said: “Our timetables are getting out ahead of Iraqi reality.”

Iraq remains a violent, dangerous and devastated country. Since 2003, Iraq Body Count puts the Iraqi death toll at 106,000, but other sources fix it at 600,000 to more than a million. Although there has been a dramatic reduction in violence since 2006-2007, at least 250 Iraqis die every month in insurgent attacks. Last month Iraqi officials say 535 people were killed. On Tuesday, 57 were slain by a suicide bomber outside an army recruitment centre in the capital. Five months after the parliamentary election there is no government, and it is unlikely that sparring factions will form a cabinet.

Sectarianism, corruption and mismanagement are rampant.

The number of Iraqis displaced inside the country is 1½ to 2¼ million, while 1½ to 2½ million are refugees living in Syria and Jordan.

Half of Iraq’s Christians and 40 per cent of professionals have fled. Unemployment stands at 60 per cent. One-quarter of Iraqis live below the poverty line, and malnourishment among children is rising.

While Iraq’s electricity production has grown from 2,500 mega- watts in late 2003 to 8,000 megawatts today, Baghdad receives only three to five hours of power a day at a time when temperatures are soaring to 50-55 degrees.

Many reconstruction projects are unfinished, including vital water and sewage plants.