Nigeria Content Online

Seven years of
battle, that started with the invasion of Iraq, the successful removal
of a dictator and the descent of the country into insurgency and
sectarian warfare, came to a virtual inconclusive end yesterday after
the US formally announced an end to its campaign in Iraq – leaving
behind 50,000 ‘non combatant’ troops to be attached to the Iraqi army.

Iraqi Prime
Minister, Nouri Maliki in a television broadcast yesterday declared
that his country is now “sovereign and independent.” But how long this
sovereignty will last is something only time will tell. The country is
basically without a functioning government owing to the ruling class’s
failure to form a coalition-government after the last general election
and this paints a grim picture of how Iraqis could work together to
solve their nation’s political conundrum.

Sectarian violence
amongst the ethnic and religious groups (Sunni, Shiite, Kurds and
others) lingers on and is responsible for the political impasse which
portrays a very delicate future for the country.

The war leaves history with indelible marks in view of its cost and casualties.

According to the US
Department of Defence, the Iraq war recorded more than 4,000 US troops
killed and about 32,000 wounded in the operation. It is estimated that
the war has also cost the US tax-payers over $750 billion. The number
of Iraqi casualties is disputed, as tens of thousands of civilian lives
and Iraqi combatants lost are unaccounted for, owing to a lack of
reliable figures.

US president,
Barack Obama, who has always considered the war a ‘dumb war’, with this
withdrawal has made true his campaign promises of winding down the war.
The remaining troops are to help train Iraqi military and security
operatives and are also strategically stationed to protect the US
dealings in the nation’s vast oil reserve.

Some argue that
this desire to safeguard Iraqi oil – beyond the peevish statement of
the US president that launched the war, that Saddam Hussein tried to
kill his father, was the main reason behind the US-led invasion of
Iraq. The official reason was the (now generally acknowledged as false)
claim of acquisition of so-called weapons of mass destruction by the
Iraqi government.

Now that the
intruder has somehow withdrawn from the country, fears of an outbreak
of sectarian violence and communal rifts remain the major
preoccupations of Iraqi leaders.

Only last week, a
series of bomb blasts across the country killed over 50 Iraqis, just as
the main batch of US soldiers started leaving. How many of such will
this new sovereign Iraq face? Again, only time will tell.