Iraq Post-Surge Success - At Its Quietest Since 2004

http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/iraq/2007/12/16/57436.html

General: Iraq at Its Quietest Since 2004

Sunday, December 16, 2007

BAGHDAD -- Violence in Iraq is at its lowest levels since the first year of

the American invasion, finally opening a window for reconciliation among

rival sects, the second-ranking U.S. general said Sunday as Iraqi forces

formally took control of security across half the country.

Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, the man responsible for the ground campaign in Iraq,

said that the first six months of 2007 were probably the most violent period

since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The past six months, however, had seen

some of the lowest levels of violence since the conflict began, Odierno

said, attributing the change to an increase in both American troops and

better-trained Iraqi forces.

"I feel we are back in '03 and early '04. Frankly I was here then, and the

environment is about the same in terms of security in my opinion," he said.

"What is different from then is that the Iraqi security forces are

significantly more mature."

Violence killed at least 27 Iraqis on Sunday _ 16 of them members of a

U.S.-backed neighborhood patrol killed in clashes with al-Qaida in a

volatile province neighboring Baghdad. Thirty-five al-Qaida fighters also

died in that fighting, Iraqi officials said.

Odierno said Anbar province, once plagued by violence, only recorded 12

attacks in the past week, down from an average of 26 per week over the past

three months.

"The violence last week was the lowest ever," he said of Anbar.

"So that kind of defines 2007 very simply. A long hard fight and a lot of

sacrifice by a lot of soldiers, Marines and airmen to get there," Odierno

said.

A planned reduction of troops to about 130,000 at the end of next year from

a high of around 165,000 at the height of the "surge" should not derail that

effort, but Iraq's government must take advantage of the improved security,

Odierno said. There are 154,000 U.S. troops in Iraq now.

"We have a window, I don't know how long that window is, but there is a

window because of the security to move forward," Odierno told a small group

of journalists at his headquarters in Baghdad. "We need to get policies in

place by the central government to do this."

One of the most important, he said, was a draft bill to ease curbs

implemented against former supporters of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party in the

aftermath of the 2003 invasion.

Iraqi lawmakers are debating the U.S.-backed draft law that would pave the

way for the creation of a National Commission for Accountability and

Justice, an independent body that would screen former Baath members in place

of the de-Baathfication commission, which many Sunnis have complained has

been overly zealous in purging low-ranking party members who had in many

cases joined the party under pressure from Saddam and been following orders.

"Reconciliation must continue," Odierno said.

The U.S.-led coalition has been gradually transferring control of security

to the Iraqi government and Britain's handover of southern Basra was the

latest in a series that began in July 2006. The coalition retains control

over half of Iraq's 18 provinces, including Anbar and central areas where

violence has flagged but not stopped.

"This is a step toward resuming security responsibilities in all of Iraq's

provinces that is due in the middle of next year," Iraqi National Security

adviser Mouwaffak al-Rubaie said in Basra. He represented Prime Minister

Nouri al-Maliki at the handover ceremony in the capital of the oil-rich

region.

In Diyala, one of Iraq's most dangerous regions, al-Qaida militants tried to

regain control of several villages around Khalis, 50 miles north of Baghdad,

but the U.S. backed volunteers drove them away, said Abdul Karim al-Rubaie

of the provincial command center.

Sunnis have been turning against al-Qaida in significant numbers and signing

up for the volunteer security forces _ partly in disgust at the militant

group's brutal tactics, and partly to seek American protection against what

they see as government-backed Shiite militias.

"It is a battle of life and death, it is a continuous fight until we cleanse

all the villages on the outskirts of Khalis," said Sheik Zuhair al-Obeidi,

who was involved in Sunday's fighting.

Next summer is more than half a year longer than President Bush's prediction

in January that Iraq would assume control all of its provinces by November.

Giving responsibility to the Iraqi army and police does not necessarily mean

that violence will abate in Basra, where rival Shiite parties and militias

have fought for control of the province.

"This remains a violent society whose tensions need to addressed, but they

need to be addressed by Iraqi political leaders," British Foreign Secretary

David Miliband, who also attended the handover ceremony, told the British

Broadcasting Corp.

Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, said in a joint

statement with U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Patricia A. Butenis,

that Iraqi forces "have demonstrated their readiness to assume

responsibility for the provincial security. Today this responsibility is

theirs."

British troops will not immediately leave southern Iraq but will instead

remain at their base just outside the city. This is know by the military as

"operational overwatch," in which Iraqi security forces and civilian police

take responsibility under a provincial governor, or other official, and

coalition forces are held in reserve in bases that are spread out _

intervening when necessary or when asked.

The next phase would involve a hand over at a national level _ which could

then set stage for a large-scale withdrawal of all foreign troops a few

years later.