Word: odierno
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...Some American officials see the hand of Iran at work in the deadlock: U.S. commander General Ray Odierno last Sunday suggested that Tehran had tried to bribe Iraqi leaders in order to deal a setback to the U.S. - charges the Iraqis angrily reject. Iran certainly opposes any agreement extending the U.S. military presence on its doorstep, and the dominant political parties in the U.S.-backed government are, in fact, the Iraqi factions closest to Iran. More important, however, may be the fact that the U.S. invasion has led to Iraq being turned into a democracy, where the will...
...Odierno, who had served as Petraeus' deputy for 15 months until February, returns for his third Iraq tour at a time when Washington and Baghdad are still hammering out the details of a contentious security pact to mandate the continuation of the U.S. mission next year, after the U.N. mandate that currently legalizes its presence expires in December...
...will fall to Odierno to oversee the implementation of the new agreement and the gradual drawdown of U.S. troops from Iraq as they hand over control to Iraqi security forces. "This struggle is theirs to win," Odierno said. But doubts remain as to whether they can. Odierno's No. 2, Lieut. General Lloyd Austin, said on Monday that he wasn't "sure that pushing [Iraqi security forces] forward is the right thing that we want...
...Odierno must also contend with a familiar set of security challenges, which, while reduced in scale, are nonetheless troublesome. Al-Qaeda in Iraq, although significantly weakened, is still staging attacks in restive areas like the northern province of Diyala. The specter of renewed sectarian strife is also very real: a tenuous truce between Iraq's various communities will be tested early next month, when the U.S. transfers command authority over the so-called Awakening or Sahwa councils (the Sunni tribal groups that fought al-Qaeda) to the predominantly Shi'ite central government. Neither side trusts the other. Tensions between Arabs...
...such as water and electricity. The resentment is fueling growing apathy toward the political process and alienation from the government. Few Iraqis are hopeful that upcoming provincial elections will help improve their lot. Likewise, the change of U.S. command doesn't mean much to some Iraqis. "General Petraeus, General Odierno - what difference does it make to me?" said one Iraqi working near the U.S. military base where the handover ceremony took place. Maybe he, too, was waiting for General Electric...