By DPA
Baghdad : More than four years after the war on Iraq and the US-led occupation, some signs of normal life have slowly been re-emerging in Baghdad as an extra 30,000 US troops arrived in Iraq in June 2007.
However, for most of the year the country as a whole has remained a place marred by violence, fear and factional self-interest, all of which continue to block political progress.
“For the first time since he was born, my four-year old son has seen a real-life playground swing. He had seen swings only on TV. But since security has improved in Baghdad, we could take him out to the park where he is enjoying brief outdoor breaks for the first time,” said Kazem Hasan, a Baghdadi father.
His words sum up how Baghdadis are reclaiming their lives since the implementation of a large-scale Iraqi offensive in February, which was beefed up by a US troops surge in June, bringing their total number to 162,000.
Car bomb attacks have ebbed from a high of 44 in February. So have suicide bombings after a high of 59 in March, boasts the US military.
For the first time in two years, residents of the capital are going out to public parks, moving between Sunni and Shiite for shopping and work, and some even venturing out after dark.
The return of 20,000 people to their Baghdad homes is another sign of the embryonic recovery.
However, long-term progress remains uncertain, as the political gains have not matched the US-Iraqi military successes achieved in 2007.
“Having achieved security improvements in Baghdad and other cities, we have to think differently, not along sectarian, individualist or party interests,” Hamid Fadil, a professor of political science at Baghdad University said.
Fadil is among Iraqi analysts who said, “Underneath the veneer of improved security, they see their country turning into a cellular nation divided into rival constituencies, and failing to achieve compromise on key issues.”
Among such issues are the much-needed consensus on 20 vital legislations, such as the oil and gas law and the return of thousands of Baath Party members from the Saddam Hussein era to government jobs.
So far the national government has been held together by a shaky coalition of Shiite and Kurdish parties. However, the withdrawal of many ministers belonging to the Shiite Sadr Bloc, the Sunni Iraqi National Accord and the secular Iraqi List has brought the cabinet nearer to collapse.
This development is further exacerbated by the provinces, which are increasingly involved in power struggles and often see the central government as irrelevant.
In the northern Kurdish Autonomous Region, the regional government’s policy is shaped by an unwavering pursuit of independence. It has passed its own oil and gas law and sealed its own trade and oil deals.
Further south, rival Shiite militias are battling to control oil-rich Basra, the country’s second largest city and home to its only port.
Its police chief, Major-General Jalil Khalaf, told the Iraqi daily al-Sabah that most of Basra’s ports, especially Um-Qasr, were under the control of the militia gangs.
“The police force is unable to carry out its duties because its members report to Basra’s militias and political parties to which those militias belong,” Khalaf warned.
Basra is plunging further into chaos as Shiite politicians jockey for positions of power in Baghdad.
New Sunni Muslim sources of power have emerged sparking both hope for a fairer distribution of power and resources and fear of further sectarianism.
US-backed Sunni tribes have been banding together forming the so-called Awakening Councils to fight Al Qaeda and extremist Iraqi insurgents in their provinces.
Their crackdown in al-Anbar and Diyala and around Baghdad is bearing fruit and bringing some measure of security there.
But the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), a report expressing the judgments of all US intelligence agencies, urged the Iraqi government to co-opt those tribes.
It warned that US support for them could strengthen the provinces and weaken efforts to impose Baghdad’s central authority.
The mix of positive and negative signs in Iraq is seen by some as a glimmer of hope for the next year, and boosted by the fact that the government has unveiled the biggest budget in the country’s history valued at $48 billion.
“I think next year will see a more effective political mobility than this year as the government is expected to refrain from using security as an excuse to focus more on the political process and reconstruction,” Fadil hoped.