Progress is made on Iraq's path to stability

IRAQ'S progress toward a stable political system is arduous but very important.

Iraq has made very significant advances on the security front, with the help of the United States (November has seen the lowest number of killings in Iraq since the beginning of the war). Now it is focused on the upcoming elections though the new election law has been difficult and still hangs in the balance as I write. But the chances are good that the law will be promulgated and the elections will take place despite some relatively minor delay.

To ensure that the elections will be free, fair and without violence will not be an easy task. But judging from previous record, despite huge pressures, foreign intervention and the high stakes this time, it will be manageable.

The next challenge after that will be forming the new government. Again, at the end it will be formed. Iraqis have demonstrated their ability to find working compromises sometimes past the 11th hour in situations that looked very bleak, politically.

The new government will face a daunting list of urgent tasks. Political stability and security have to be enhanced and consolidated. The economy has to be activated by a wide combination of measures designed to improve the business and investment environment. The government will need to urgently improve services to its citizens, combat corruption and tame its burgeoning bureaucracy.

Easier said than done. The legacy from decades of war, mismanagement and organized looting has driven many of the qualified leaders in management and other professions out of the country. This has left the rest of the population traumatized, brutalized and prone to corruption and many other social and political diseases.

In the regional and international arenas, Iraq needs to get out from under the United Nations sanctions imposed in 1991 by the U.N. Security Council against Saddam Hussein's regime, and which are now unjustifiable anachronisms. Iraq will need to continue its current foreign policy of establishing a working relationship with all its neighbors while insisting on noninterference in its internal affairs as well as playing a positive and active role as a responsible member of the family of nations.

One might say that all this is one tall order. But it has to be done. The Iraqi government will have to rely on steady incremental and accelerating improvements in its oil-production levels, its economy, its rate of return of refugees, particularly qualified people who had fled the violence, and above all, a more conducive political climate based on a national consensus born of reconciliation.

If things go well, it will be good for the Iraqi people and good for the United States. American troops will be able to return home with honor and on schedule and the relationship between our countries will continue to move away from security and toward economic, diplomatic, cultural and educational cooperation, as envisioned by the Strategic Framework Agreement signed in November 2008.

Yet nothing can be taken for granted in Iraq. The forces, both internal and external, that want Iraq to remain where it is or to regress are considerable. They have been contained but not defeated. We, therefore, cannot afford to be complacent, and by this I mean, both Iraq and the United States.

It is part of my task to reach out to the American people and to explain where we are, where we want to go and what we need to do to get there as well as the consequences of success and failure. I reach out through the media and by traveling within the U.S. and talking to people who concern themselves with national security and foreign policy.

It is a great opportunity for me to visit Washington state and to put my case to its people in the hope of raising awareness on this vital national-security issue and to encourage constructive debates.