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Majority of Iraq Lawmakers
Seek Timetable for U.S. Exit
By KIRK SEMPLE
05/12/07 "New
York Times" -- - BAGHDAD, May 11 — A majority of
Iraq’s Parliament members have signed a petition for a timetable
governing a withdrawal of American troops, several legislators
said Friday.
The withdrawal would depend on the growth and maturity of the
Iraqi security forces, to ensure that the departure would not
create a security vacuum and accelerate the sectarian conflict,
the petition’s sponsors said.
“The troop withdrawal would move in parallel with the buildup of
Iraqi troops, but their stay should not be for a long time,”
said Saleh al-Igili, a member of the parliamentary bloc allied
with the anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, which
sponsored the petition.
Officials with Mr. Sadr’s bloc said 144 of Parliament’s 275
members — including Sunnis, Shiites and at least one Kurd — had
signed. The document is being developed into a draft bill by
Parliament’s legal and foreign relations committees, said Bahaa
al-Araji, a member of the Sadr bloc and head of the legal
committee.
The petition formalizes a widely held sentiment among many
legislators — and among Iraqis in general — that American troops
should withdraw as soon as possible, though not before Iraqi
forces are prepared to assume control of the country’s security.
Even Mr. Sadr has cautioned against an immediate withdrawal,
although he has been in the vanguard of Iraqi leaders demanding
an American departure, and last month withdrew his six ministers
from the cabinet in protest over Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s
resistance to timetables.
The petition echoes elements of the debate in Washington over
troop withdrawals from Iraq. Like the petitioners, many
Democratic lawmakers have demanded a timetable for a withdrawal,
over the opposition of President Bush and Mr. Maliki, though the
president has accepted the idea of nonbinding benchmarks.
But in another respect the petition brings the majority of Iraqi
legislators into agreement with the Bush administration: both
argue that an American withdrawal should depend on the readiness
of Iraqi troops.
Mr. Araji said the legislative committees drafting a bill had
asked the interior and defense ministers for an estimated
timeline for the development of effective Iraq security forces.
Pressure in the United States and Iraq for deadlines comes
during a buildup of American and Iraqi troops to buttress the
latest security plan for the capital. Three additional American
brigades, a total of about 7,000 troops, have already been
deployed in and around Baghdad, and two more are scheduled to
arrive in the next two months.
The increase appears to have led to a limited reduction in
violence in Baghdad, particularly in the kinds of assassinations
for which Shiite militias have most often been blamed. But
American and Iraqi forces have not been able to stop the car
bombings and suicide attacks attributed to the Sunni Arab-led
insurgency.
Bridges were the targets of two suicide bombings on Friday in a
neighborhood on the southern fringe of Baghdad, killing at least
22 people and wounding at least 50, an Interior Ministry
official said.
Military pressure on Baghdad has driven some Sunni Arab
militants to Diyala Province, north of the capital, where they
have joined a worsening battle between Sunni and Shiite
militias.
The challenge to the American and Iraqi military in Diyala was
underscored Friday by the American military commander in
northern Iraq, Maj. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon, who said he had
asked for more troops to join the fight in the province.
The level of violence in Diyala, already high, has increased
since the start of the American-led security crackdown in
mid-February, making it one of the most lethal regions in Iraq
for American troops.
“I do not have enough soldiers right now in Diyala Province to
get that security situation moving,” General Mixon said. “We
have plans to put additional forces in that region.” He declined
to provide details about possible future deployments. But he
insisted that a cornerstone of the country’s long-term security
would be a sustained American presence.
“We just can’t think about pulling out of here just like that,”
he said.
The American military command said two soldiers were killed and
11 wounded in two attacks on Thursday, one in Baghdad and the
other in Diyala. The Interior Ministry official said at least 17
bodies had been recovered from streets around Baghdad.
Khalid al-Ansary and Khalid W. Hassan contributed reporting.
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
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