A Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Over the course of the past couple of months, the War in Iraq has seemed to be heading for a light at the end of a five and a half year long tunnel. Negotiations have been in the works for a U.S.-Iraq security agreement that will—at last—set a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops by the end of 2011.

In response, Iraqi civilians are protesting for an “end the U.S. occupation of Iraq.” These protests are affecting the decisions of the United Iraqi Alliance, of which Prime Minister Nouri Kamel al-Maliki’s Dawa party is a member, concerning the agreement: they were staged in Baghdad this past Saturday and negotiations between the two countries arrived at a standstill on Sunday. Since provincial elections are next year, the overwhelming dissent in Iraq is forcing al-Maliki and other Shi’ite party leaders to worry about maintaining the support of their parties if they take a pro-American stand, which they would be doing by acquiescing to the proposal as it is now.

On the one hand, the response of Iraqi leaders to the protests points to a growing influence of the Iraqi people in the political process. This demonstrates the beginning stages of a democratic system relative to Saddam Hussein’s authoritarian regime. On the other, Iraq has decided to change only the wording of the proposed agreement. This leads us to question what actual political power the people have and thus, the true nature of the Iraqi democracy. Moreover, it is the Shi’ite majority who are in opposition to the proposition; the Kurdish minority has already approved of it. Is this response an example of majority rule in action, or merely of what the Framers of the U.S. Constitution feared, a “pursuit of self-interest” by the government?

The mostly peaceful protests have been supplemented by a continuation of bombings in Baghdad as recently as Sunday. In retrospect, the bloodiest months of the war did in fact follow President George W. Bush’s announcement of “mission accomplished” on May 1, 2003. Thus, these protests of the U.S.-Iraq peace pact hint that the future of Iraq has the potential to be rocky—perhaps even as rocky as the past five years of supposed post-major combat operations have been.

Although peace in Iraq may not be in the future of tomorrow, there is at least a glimmer of hope for it someday. The democratic system that is gradually and somewhat unsteadily taking hold of the country will continue to do so, as Iraq learns to lessens its dependency on the U.S.