Obama's Iraq Policy A "Victory" For Insurgents

The opposition to Obama's position for a quick withdrawal in Iraq warned that it would encourage the insurgents. Nonsense replied the Obama camp.

Insurgents Hail Pullout of Troops From Cities

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON

Published: July 1, 2009

BAGHDAD — A day after Iraqis celebrated the formal withdrawal of American combat troops from towns and cities, leaders of some of the most high-profile insurgent and opposition groups had their say on Wednesday.

The Shifting American Footprint in Iraq

Statements were released by a former senior ally of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni clerical association that has sanctioned armed resistance and Moktada al-Sadr, the anti-American Shiite cleric, all of which hailed the withdrawal as a victory for the resistance and compared it to the beginning of the revolt against the British occupation in 1920.

Iraqi opposition and insurgent leaders consider themselves to have as much legitimacy as, or more than, Iraqi government officials, and formal statements on such a symbolic occasion are expected.

The statements all commanded Iraqis to continue fighting the American military until it had left the country completely; nearly 130,000 troops remain. The statements also insisted, in unusually clear language, that Iraqis not turn their violence on one another.

This appears to be a noteworthy change for the former Hussein ally, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who was deputy chairman of Mr. Hussein’s Revolutionary Command Council and who American officials say has been financing and organizing Baathist insurgents.

We “have decided in this blessed day to direct all combat effort towards the invaders,” Mr. Douri’s statement said, “and forbid absolutely the killing of Iraqis or fighting them in all the formations and organs of the agent’s authority — in the so-called army, police, Awakening and the administration agencies — except for what is required in self-defense, if some spies in these agencies try to stop the resistance or harm them.”

As recently as April, Mr. Douri had called upon people to attack the Iraqi government, which he considers a puppet of the United States.

If Mr. Douri holds to this new stance it could bolster the possibility, raised by some Iraqi and American officials, that the withdrawal of American troops removes a justification that many insurgent groups used to carry out attacks, even if those attacks disproportionately killed and injured Iraqis.

The Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni clerical group that has condoned attacks against the American military, issued a statement in which it condemned sectarianism and urged Iraqis to avoid harming other Iraqis. “Resistance is for all Iraqis, across the spectrum, from the north to the south,” the statement read.

Mr. Sadr, who has increasingly distanced his movement from the use of violence, was less celebratory in his statement, expressing concerns that the withdrawal was a mere “media announcement.” It would be “a bright page in the honest Iraqi resistance’s history” if it were real, he said, but he highlighted the continuing presence of American military advisers, who are allowed to stay in the cities under the security agreement between Iraq and the United States, as evidence that June 30 may not be the symbolic victory the government has suggested it is.

Mr. Sadr also said that a military withdrawal was not sufficient, mentioning the continued presence of American intelligence agencies and security contractors in particular. “We want a withdrawal, and not interference, on all fronts — political, social, economic, judicial, and ministerial,” he said in his statement. “Not only the military front.”

Also on Wednesday, the Iraqi cabinet approved one bid from a public auction on Tuesday for the rights to develop Iraqi oil fields, a government spokesman announced. A consortium of BP and China National Petroleum Company has agreed to increase output of the enormous Rumaila oil field to 2.85 million barrels a day, and will receive a $2 premium for every barrel the field produces over a baseline established by the Iraqi government.

Rumaila, in Iraq’s south, is the largest of the oil fields that were part of the auction, and its development could be a significant contribution to Iraq’s economy.

The cabinet officially rejected six other bids from the auction that asked for larger amounts than the government was willing to pay, the spokesman said.

Mohammed Hussein, Anwar J. Ali and Riyadh Mohammed contributed reporting.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: July 6, 2009
A reporting credit on Wednesday with an article about the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraqi cities misstated the surname of a New York Times reporter who contributed. He is Campbell Robertson, not Robinson.