US combat operations in Iraq may be officially over, but the mischief of the invasion lingers on, writes Salah Hemeid Nearly seven and a half years after the United States launched Operation Iraqi Freedom to topple Saddam Hussein, American troops ended their combat mission in the country on Tuesday, leaving behind a battered and sharply-divided nation. Washington said that all US combat troops have now left Iraq, aside from 50,000 so-called "advise and assist" forces that will stay on until the end of next year as part of Operation New Dawn, codename for America's biggest- ever misadventure and foreign policy bluff. With the withdrawal of US combat forces from Iraq complete, US President Barack Obama told Americans on Tuesday, the US role in Iraq has changed for good. In a widely publicised speech Obama highlighted his campaign pledge to bring the war that was launched by his predecessor George W. Bush to a close. Obama praised the US troops, outlined the situation in Iraq, and looked ahead to the war in Afghanistan, but he did not claim victory in the still- unresolved war in Iraq. Instead, Obama emphasised his own role in bringing US troops home and reiterated his promise to withdraw all US forces from Iraq by the end of 2011. As Obama prepared to deliver his speech, US Vice-President Joe Biden flew into Iraq on Monday in order to participate in a ceremony marking the end of the US combat mission there. With two months to go until mid-term elections in the United States and with many Americans losing confidence in their president's ability to stop the steady drumbeat of negative economic developments, Obama can at least take credit for keeping his campaign pledge on withdrawing US combat troops from Iraq. However, for Iraqis, whose country remains a political mess, there is no such good news to celebrate, since the balance sheet of the last seven years has been horrifying. No new government has been formed in the six months since parliamentary elections were held in Iraq in March, and there are still outbreaks of deadly violence, with the political deadlock and a continuous wave of bombings across the country putting Iraq into a precarious situation. The conflict has cost thousands of Iraqi lives and billions of dollars in waste and embezzlement. Iraqi deaths are difficult to track because of the chaos in the country, but they range between the hundreds of thousands and a million, either caused by violence, lack of proper medical care or poverty induced by the conflict. As for the cost of the war, the US Congressional Research Service estimates that the US will have spent almost $802 billion on the war by the end of fiscal year 2011, with $747 billion already appropriated. For their part, Nobel Laureate in economics Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard's Linda Bilmes have put the true cost of the war at $3 trillion, once additional impacts on the US budget and economy are taken into account. Meanwhile, Iraq has spent some $300 billion on war reconstruction, security and corruption associated with a lack of accountability and mismanagement. As American combat troops head home from Iraq, fresh reports have revealed that billions of dollars of American taxpayers' and Iraqi money have been lost in faked or incomplete projects. Perhaps nothing symbolises the failure of America's aspirations in Iraq more than the continuing lack of electricity in the country. As temperatures climbed to over 55 degrees, Iraqis have been left sweltering in the heat with no more than a few hours of electricity a day in most places. On Saturday, an aide to Iraq's top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, made an appeal to help buy ice for people suffering through a hot summer and frequent electricity shortages. Some two million Iraqi refugees are still living in exile, or have been displaced inside Iraq, after being forced to flee their homes because of violence and sectarian threats. Today, most of Baghdad's neighbourhoods are shielded by high concrete walls from the rubble-strewn streets and are cordoned off by security forces, with residents trapped by fears of renewed sectarian conflict. Iraq's armed forces are not yet ready to protect civilians, having insufficient numbers, equipment and training, while insurgents tied to Al-Qaeda continue to launch frequent attacks, spreading panic in many Iraqi cities. Iraq's newly built armed forces, 660,000 strong but poorly trained and sharply divided along ethnic and sectarian lines, cannot be expected to succeed where the US army has failed. The country's political groupings, divided by years of bloodshed between Shias, Sunnis and Kurds, have yet to agree on a roadmap for the future of Iraq amid disputes over territory and the sharing of power and wealth. At the same time, Iraqis are frustrated at the US-sponsored political process and fears that the government stalemate might create a political vacuum and further instability. Despite Obama's speech marking the end of the US combat mission in Iraq, nothing "looks fine", as Biden boasted when he arrived in Baghdad on Monday. Instead, the country has been left in ruins, with Iraqis so desperate that they have begun to compare life in the country now to what it was like under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, whose overthrow the Americans claim was the war's greatest achievement. While Obama might have fulfilled his campaign promises, now planning swiftly to move on from Iraq, there are increasing doubts that the US has indeed made what he called "a responsible withdrawal." While Iraqis want the American troops to leave, it is difficult not to question the wisdom of the timing of their withdrawal and Obama's policies in the region. Obama is pulling out US troops at a time when there is no new government in Iraq, when violent attacks are on the rise and when regional instability is growing. The dangers confronting Iraq after combat operations end remain enormous, and the United States will not be able simply to consign the Iraq war to history. Given the present parlous state of Iraq, the US should be held responsible for what is now likely to happen in the country, and there are no comforting scenarios.
