U.S. Navy Lt. Brian Ross, with Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 1, shows Iraqi soldiers assigned to an Iraqi army bomb disposal company how to inspect a hook and line kit in Tikrit, Iraq, on Nov. 26, 2008. DoD photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Joan E. Kretschmer, U.S. Navy. (Released)From The Christian Science Monitor:
Many Iraqis say passage of the US-Iraqi security pact ushers in a new era in which US military power will be replaced by Iraqi political power.
Baghdad - A surprising development has emerged in this city's streets and its corridors of power – the United States and its 140,000 troops have become increasingly irrelevant.
Some Iraqi officials see the passage of a landmark agreement with the US last week as the beginning of a new era – one in which the US presence has become overshadowed and American military power is replaced by Iraqi political power.
"I think we are entering a new phase as a whole," says Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih. "The end of an era – of Iraqi political dynamics taking over and coinciding with the end of the Bush administration – and the end of an era with the UN Security Council resolutions and the bringing in of the Status of Forces Agreement."
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My Comment: If civil war and strife breaks out again .... the U.S. role will only reassert itself .... but I doubt that this will happen. All nations will always want to be responsible for their own affairs. The U.S. military will always be present in Iraq (all be it in the desert), but the political and decision making process of what to do will now lie in the hands of the Iraqi government.