Handing off Iraq

With all the pomp and ceremony of changing shifts at a 7-11, the American led Provisional authority handed over the governance of Iraq to its interim government. Making the transition to nominal Iraqi rule two days early.

In a quick ten minute ceremony new interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi took an oath of office holding a Quran. A few photos and a quick shake of hands and former Iraq administrator Paul Bremer was on a plane heading for home. A new ambassador John Negroponte taking up his duties in Baghdad as part of the changeover.

Allawi is now technically in charge and the new day dawned for Iraqi’s who were apparently unaware that they were “masters of their own destiny”. Of course the masters’ part is not quite there yet, as this is purely a small step to running their own state. With 145,000 troops kicking around the country the American presence will be there for a while yet, attempting to keep an increasing hostile rebellion in check.

The interim government will hold power for seven months while election plans are readied. The UN has passed a resolution stating that elections must be held no later than January 31, 2005. However, what state the country will be in for an election is very much up in the air. The first situation that the new government will face will be the handover of Saddam Hussein and members of his upper staff to the new regime. What they do with him will make for an interesting study as to where the country will go with the concept of jurisprudence.

The reason for the fast track changeover was due mainly to the threat of terrorist attacks as insurgents have been increasing the rate of turmoil as the handover date (originally June 30th) was approaching. That turmoil is not expected to diminish with an Iraqi face on the government and there is some concern that the infrastructure of running a country is nowhere near in place to guarantee order let alone any sense of success.

The American and coalition Armies and Marines are still charged with National Security for the time being. The Iraqi government hoping to have a police force trained over the next few months to begin to retake control of the country’s major cities. Likewise the Army in Iraq has to be rebuilt to reflect the new reality of life in the Middle Eastern country.

For George Bush it was an opportunity to announce that “The Iraqi people have their country back” a nice phrase but perhaps a tad simplistic for the moment, but for Bush it at least denotes a sense of moving forward on a situation that had bogged down into swamp of desperation.

The timing of the handover which took many by surprise may have come as news to the President as well. Bush was notified of the handover by a note passed to him by Condoleezza Rice, while one would hope that the President of the United States might have been briefed earlier on the potential change, you’re just never sure with this crew. If Michael Moore has plans for a sequel to Fahrenheit 9/11 he’s already got more than enough footage in the can as they say.

With an Iraqi face now on the nation, the US is no doubt hoping that the world community will begin to reintroduce the idea of getting involved in the situation. Many countries had taken a pass on any assistance while Iraq was considered an occupied country, it’s probably hoped that today’s announcement would bring the sidelined nations of the world more into the orbit of reconstruction.

So far there is no great rush to provide any tangible assistance. NATO offered to train the Iraqi police and army, but so far have not offered to become further involved in the situation there. Likewise the UN has yet to move in any great haste to get involved.

By speeding up the process the potential for a huge disruptive assault by insurgents has been avoided. However, the danger certainly is not over by any stretch of the imagination. Mr. Allawi may be the leader on paper, but one suspects his is not a universally received appointment. The days of trouble for Iraq are a long way from being over, but they have to start somewhere. May things continue on with a quick pace to return the country and its people to a safer environment as soon as possible.