American role in this critical period. If the Iraqi forces were responsible alone, it would be a disaster

TO BE NOTED: From the NY Times:

"Left Hand, Right Hand

By Mohammed Hussein

BAGHDAD– Six bangs followed by an Iraqi dialect coming through a loudspeaker woke me. I jumped from my bed, and the noise of these bangs was still roaring in my head. I approached the window to see what was happening outside.

Instantly all the bad memories flashed through my memory, of the old days in 2006 when we used to be woken by such bangs or shooting.

A week ago an American unit arrested my next door neighbor. Humvees and armored vehicles accompanied by sniffer dogs stopped in the middle of the street, surrounding the house.

My next door neighbor moved into the building a week ago. He did not resist arrest. The whole operation lasted about 20 minutes.

The patrol shot six sound bombs followed by calls in Arabic dialect through loudspeakers, saying “Haider come out and surrender.”

My neighborhood is on the southern edge of Baghdad. Before 2003, it was a mixed neighborhood for Sunnia and Shiites. In late 2006 it became a Sunni majority area after Shiite families were expelled by extremist Sunni insurgents.

Later on we heard that our ‘peaceful’ neighbor was a member of the special groups, the Shiite groups that we know are supported from our dear neighboring country, Iran. He came to the area pretending to be a Sunni displaced from my neighborhood.

You cannot imagine what happened next. Not far from the house is a permanent Iraqi checkpoint protecting a Shiite mosque. An Iraqi soldier came to our door and asked my father “what were the Americans doing near that house?”

It seemed Iraq Army units do not have any idea about American military operations in my neighborhood, which is controlled by the Iraqi Army.

The Iraqi government headed by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki doesn’t miss any opportunity to show off about the great achievement of signing with the American side what is called the status of forces agreement, known as SOFA. According to that agreement the American forces cannot conduct any operation or arrest without a legal permission from the Iraqi side, which is represented by the Iraqi armed forces.

Here is the importance of the American role in this critical period. If the Iraqi forces were responsible alone, it would be a disaster.

The new security forces were formed after 2003 when the old army was disbanded. The core of the new Iraqi Army was formed under the supervision of American commanders. I doubt that we could find somebody else able to evaluate the readiness of the Iraqi army as well as the Americans, since it was formed by their own hands.

These days the Iraqi government and officials are calling the Americans to stick to the timetable to withdraw combat troops from Iraq, without considering how the situation will be at that time.

This week there was a series of bloody attacks around the country. But the Iraqi officials have not done anything about these bloody explosions, except saying the security situation so far is good.

Everyone here has become skeptical about how the security situation will be after the withdrawal of the U.S. military.

Mohammed Hussein is an Iraqi employee of The New York Times in Baghdad."