Iraq conflict far from over

While generally either overlooked or downplayed, it is important to note that the United States is not a superpower that conquers other nations just to control and subjugate them. Today's change in the official role in Iraq is just the latest case in point.

Certainly, the United States wants to extend its sphere of friends and allies in the world, preferably with nations that also value notions of freedom, liberty and republican government. But the United States' role historically has been to fight when it feels threatened, conquer its enemies and help the people of those nations re-establish themselves under the rule of law. Historians are likely to argue into the foreseeable future over whether the administration of George W. Bush was justified in invading Iraq and ousting Saddam Hussein. But the intention never was to rule Iraqis from Washington the way the Soviet Union once spread its iron curtain. It was, from the beginning, to give people what Americans generally believe all people want — freedom.

That said, it also is important for Americans to understand that the end of the nation's combat role in Iraq does not in any way signal an end to U.S. involvement in Iraq. President Bush set a goal to remove all troops at the end of 2011, and President Barack Obama would like to stick to that schedule. But unless Iraqis improve dramatically in their ability to form a government and keep the peace on their own, that goal will be shoved back considerably. Iraq may end up like South Korea, where the United States maintains a presence of about 30,000 troops nearly 60 years after hostilities ended.

Iraq remains divided over ethnic and sectarian struggles. Arabs, Kurds and Turkomens still contest for land near Kirkuk. The fact the nation has been unable to form a government is evidence that deep divisions remain to be addressed. The U.S. troop presence, strengthened by the surge under the Bush administration, may be all that is keeping the peace. That will make withdrawing entirely by the end of next year nearly impossible.

For one thing, Iraqi politicians are likely to ask the United States to stay. For another, Iraq remains an important factor for peace in the region. A stable and mostly free Iraq would counterbalance Iran and provide an important regional trading partner for countries that would rather not do business with repressive regimes. Despite the change in U.S. mission, the Iraqi conflict still has not been won, but the United States cannot allow it to be lost.

The drawdown of combat troops, however, signals once again to the world that the United States has no interest in holding on to other nations by force.