Passing Iraq a Heavy Baton

Any date set for a handover of sovereignty from the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority to Iraqis would have been artificial. The one finally chosen, June 30, owed as much to presidential election-year politics as to Iraqi anger at worsening security problems, widespread joblessness, electrical failures and other problems after Saddam Hussein’s overthrow. But once the date was set, changing it became impossible without fomenting more hatred and violence.

So last week, U.N. and U.S. leaders anointed a new Iraqi government that has three more weeks to get itself in order. It faces the dilemma of relying on U.S. troops to supply security -- the country’s greatest need -- while distancing itself from Washington. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that the 130,000 U.S. troops and other soldiers from the coalition must remain in the country to prevent civil war. Unlike France, Germany and other nations, Zebari did not want to set a date for the troops to leave. The electricity minister, Ayham Sameraei, has a more specific task for the troops: providing security so electricity can be generated. Estimated power supplies nationwide are still below pre-invasion levels, according to the Brookings Institution.

Despite the tanks, troops and helicopters that will stay, and the continuing tension over who will control them, the new government can show independence on pocketbook issues by getting more jobs and cash into Iraqi hands. The sooner the Education Ministry, not the U.S. 2nd Armored Division, paints schools and distributes textbooks, the better. Putting Iraqi roustabouts in the oil fields instead of Halliburton workers also would help give Iraqis the jobs they say they want and keep the money in the country.

The difficulties are enormous. Insurgents are not just killing U.S. soldiers and Iraqis who help them; they also are attacking the country’s main source of income. Iraq was exporting 1.8 million barrels of oil a day in April, not quite back to the level of just before the war. After one pipeline developed technical problems and insurgents bombed another, the export level fell by more than half. The fields earned $10 billion since the invasion; their potential is unknown because of the extensive repairs and upgrades required. The new government won recognition, if not enthusiastic endorsement, from the most influential man in the country, Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. He challenged the interim rulers to gain popular acceptance by quickly giving “political, economic and military” sovereignty to Iraqis.

Iraq will also have to do what the U.S. did not -- invite companies from around the world to help rebuild the country. The money to do so will still be primarily American, but it was in part the “Made in the USA” nature of the occupation that made U.S. workers such easy targets. When Iraqis decide where police stations and schools will be built and put up the walls themselves, yet another trigger to violence will be removed.