In Baghdad, Reality Counters Rhetoric

Iraqi soldiers celebrate after a ceremony restoring Iraqi border security in the western city of Qusaybah, along the frontier with Syria. (Pool Photo/by David Furst Via Reuters)

"They should stay," said Raed Raek, 20, a government technician. "If they leave, it will be a real mess."

"I want them to leave today," countered Muthana Abu Hashim, 32, who was selling eggplants at a sidewalk stand. "They cause too many problems, close the roads, block too much of Baghdad."

The debate echoes from the clamorous streets of the city, where donkey carts jostle with cars in perpetual gridlock, to the quiet carpeted halls of government in the fortified Green Zone.

At the National Assembly on Wednesday, political leaders diplomatically embraced Bush's plan for a gradual withdrawal, but then reverted to their own definitions of "gradual." While Bush emphatically rejected a timetable, Iraqi leaders said they were well aware that public opinion was building in the United States for troop withdrawal within two years.

"You can see the strong blows that have been made against the main center of the insurgency, and the large numbers of terrorists in detention," said Jawad Maliki, head of the security committee of the parliament, siding with Bush in insisting Iraqi security forces are greatly improved.

But he added, "Of course, an American withdrawal is subject to a request made by the Iraqi government."

A few minutes later and a few feet away, Adnan Janabi, a former minister of state, scoffed.

"I don't think anyone thinks security is better," insisted Janabi. He said the unilateral decisions made by the Americans when they first occupied Iraq, and the frequent replacement of officials in the Iraqi government since then, have left the country teetering and vulnerable.

"We had started straightening up the mess with the police and army that was created by Bremer," Janabi said, referring to the former U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer. But the changing of the government set back that progress, he said.

Iraqi political leaders see the U.S. debate as a key to their own futures, and in the foyer of the National Assembly, many offered diverging opinions on the subject.

"The Iraqi security forces and army are not yet at the level of performance to maintain security for the Iraqi people," said Arif Tayfor Sarder, deputy speaker of the National Assembly and a Kurd. "We feel the presence of the American forces is a safety valve for keeping the forces who are trying to incite trouble under control," he said.

The Kurds in Iraq's north are the least eager among Iraqi groups to see the departure of the United States, which has helped ensure a large degree of autonomy for them.