Approving pact makes Maliki man who ended American occupation – newspaper

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: In a country where agreements are hard to reach, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki built a broad political coalition to muscle through a divisive U.S.-Iraq security pact that could set his place in his nation’s history as the man who ended the American occupation, the McClatchy newspaper said on Friday. “We have gotten an important achievement by signing the withdrawal agreement for the foreign troops from Iraq and bringing back its sovereignty,” he said. “That’s a major role change for Maliki, who came to power in 2006 as a sectarian Shiite lawmaker propped up by a tenuous coalition of political blocs. He has taken an increasingly assertive role as Iraq’s leader since March, when he launched a military offensive in Basra against Shiite militias loyal to cleric Muqtada al Sadr,” the newspaper said. “Maliki put his fingerprints all over the U.S. security agreement, condemning early drafts as unsatisfactory to telegraph his toughness to the Iraqi people in the spring and summer,” it added. “He changed course and endorsed the deal only two weeks ago, when he said the Americans had met most of his demands, including ones Washington was reluctant to yield ground on, such as setting a timetable for the American withdrawal and giving Iraqis more authority over U.S. military operations here.” “Prime Minister Maliki drove an extremely tough bargain,” said Army Col. Peter Mansoor, who worked closely with Gen. David Petraeus in implementing the surge strategy that contributed to security gains in Iraq in 2007. Maliki “had to, given that any agreement that kept American troops in Iraq, even for a defined period of time, was going to be looked at skeptically by the people in Iraq,” said Mansoor, now a professor of military history at Ohio State University. The agreement calls on the U.S. military to pull back from cities and towns by June, to consult with the government of Iraq before conducting an operation and to withdraw completely from the country by Dec. 31, 2011. It denies judicial immunity to foreign military contractors, and it prohibits the U.S. from attacking other countries from bases in Iraq. Maliki’s supporters call the pact an unmitigated victory for the prime minister. “He’s come all this way with hard bargaining and negotiation until he achieved almost everything he asked for,” said Haider al Abadi, a parliament member from Maliki’s Dawa party. “The fact is he made it stick,” Mansoor said. “He staked his political future on this decision, and when he made it work, it won him respect from every political bloc, with the exception of the Sadrists.” “Maliki has managed to cross the ethnic-sectarian boundaries, and now he’s appealing to all Iraqis,” Abadi said. “He proved his fairness, his leadership and his statesmanship.” SH (I) 1