RL31339
Iraq: Post-Saddam Governance and Security
April 27, 2007
Download Locations
Summary
Operation Iraqi Freedom overthrew Saddam Hussein's regime, but much of Iraq remains unstable because of Sunni Arab resentment and a related insurgency, compounded by Sunni-Shiite violence that a January 2007 national intelligence estimate (NIE) says has key elements of a "civil war." Mounting U.S. casualties and financial costs -- without clear improvements in levels of violence -- have intensified a debate within the United States over whether to wind down U.S. involvement without completely accomplishing initial U.S. goals. U.S. Defense Department reports, the December 6, 2006, report of the Iraq Study Group, and the NIE express pessimism about security in Iraq. President Bush addressed the nation on new initiatives in Iraq on January 10, 2007 and announced a deployment of at an additional 21,500 U.S. combat forces to help stabilize Baghdad and restive Anbar Province, as well as other measures to create jobs and promote political reconciliation. He and other officials have asserted that the new security plan would build on important successes: two elections (January and December 2005) that chose an interim and then a full-term parliament and government; a referendum that adopted a permanent constitution (October 15, 2005); progress in building Iraq's security forces; and economic growth. While continuing to build, equip, and train Iraqi security units, the Administration has worked to include more Sunni Arabs in the power structure and to persuade the Iraqi government to act on a series of key reconciliation initiatives that are viewed as "benchmarks" of political progress. Senior U.S. military leaders say the 2007 Baghdad security plan has reduced sectarian violence and allowed for an increase in commerce and ease of movement around Baghdad, but it has not, to date, not reduced violence Iraq-wide. Movement on the reconciliation initiatives has been halting but has not ceased. Some in Congress -- as well as the Iraq Study Group -- believe that the United States should begin winding down U.S. combat involvement in Iraq. Both chambers adopted a conference report on a FY2007 supplemental appropriation to fund U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan (H.R. 1591) that would set a March 31, 2008, deadline for U.S. combat withdrawal -- or three months sooner, if the President does not certify Iraqi progress on the "benchmarks." The Senate version (S. 965) would set March 1, 2008 as a non-binding goal for U.S. combat withdrawal. President Bush says he will veto the bill. Other bills support the Iraq Study Group's recommendation for intensified regional diplomacy to enlist help from neighboring states to calm their protege factions in Iraq. This is a step the Administration has begun to take by participating in a March 10 meeting in Baghdad involving Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Syria. This report is updated regularly. See also CRS Report RS21968, Iraq: Elections, Government, and Constitution, by Kenneth Katzman; CRS Report RL31833, Iraq: Recent Developments in Reconstruction Assistance, by Curt Tarnoff; CRS Report RL31701, Iraq: U.S. Military Operations, by Steve Bowman; and CRS Report RL33793, Iraq: Regional Perspectives and U.S. Policy, coordinated by Christopher Blanchard.
-
Related Legislation:
- H.R.1591
- S.965
- S.2196
