BAGHDAD: A year after the last American troops rumbled out of Iraq, the two countries are still trying to get comfortable with a looser, more nuanced relationship as the young democracy struggles to cope with political upheaval and the legacy of war.
The military pullout a year ago today did not end Washington’s engagement. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, a fortress-like campus as big as Vatican City, remains a highly visible reminder of America’s ongoing interest in Iraq’s future.
Several senior U.S. officials have visited Baghdad over the past year, and America’s role as Iraq’s biggest arms supplier ensures continuing ties to the Iraqi military for years to come.
U.S. companies are hunting for Iraqi oil, and Chevrolet Malibus and Dodge Chargers increasingly cruise Baghdad streets still dotted with checkpoints. Iraqi Airways just days ago got its first Boeing jetliner in three decades, and it’s waiting for dozens more.
But Iraq is at the same time busily pursuing its own interests — sometimes against America’s wishes — as it seeks to balance its position in a precarious part of the world and re-establish itself as a regional power.
“Since the U.S. withdrawal, Baghdad ... has attempted to rethink its relations with the U.S.” said Maria Fantappie, an Iraq analyst at the International Crisis Group. She described the strategy as trying to establish a two-way, “nonexclusive relationship with the United States.”
Iraq’s desire to go its own way was on display last month when authorities freed a jailed Hezbollah commander that Washington had wanted to keep behind bars. The U.S. considers Ali Mussa Daqduq to be a major threat to Americans in the region and believes the Lebanese militant was behind a brazen 2007 raid on a military base that left five U.S. soldiers dead.
Iraq meanwhile continues to forge ever stronger ties with neighbor Iran, Hezbollah’s top patron, even as the United States and many of its allies work to isolate Tehran over its nuclear program. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to make his second visit to Baghdad soon.
Iraq has done little, for instance, to halt flights suspected of carrying Iranian arms to neighboring Syria. Although Baghdad has searched a handful of planes, saying it found nothing, its reluctance to do more exasperates Washington.
A U.S. Embassy official recently said the Iranian flights continue.
“They need to stop flights at least frequently and randomly without advance notice to have a look. We believe these flights carry weapons, and not just humanitarian supplies ... or flowers for the tabletops of Damascus,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and insisted on anonymity.
American officials say their relationship with Iraq is improving nonetheless.
A number of senior officials have visited Baghdad in recent months, including Sen. John McCain and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey. Robert Ford, the ambassador to Syria, met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday to discuss efforts to resolve the civil war there.
Even so, the American presence in the country continues to shrink.
The number of U.S. government employees and contractors working at diplomatic outposts around the country has fallen below 14,000, according to figures provided by the embassy in Baghdad. That is down from about 16,000 earlier this year. It is expected to shrink to about 12,000 in 2013.
