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In between war and peace in Iraq
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With Thursday night's pronouncement that the major combat phase of the war in Iraq is over, the focus shifts now to rebuilding the country and creating a stable government. Debate continues about what a democratic Iraq will look like, but everyone agrees the task will take far longer than the six-week military campaign that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime. Richard Holbrooke, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under the Clinton administration, told me on Thursday's "Inside Politics" that President Bush's speech declaring the end of the military phase is a turning point in the discussion about Iraq. "I think it's very important for all Americans, whether they opposed the war or supported to it, whether they are liberals or conservatives, Republicans, Democrat or independents, to be able to say with pride we won -- to embrace the victory -- even as we begin to discuss the very difficult decisions that lie ahead," Holbrooke said. Since military operations started winding down, a number of ethnic groups, Iraqi expatriates and others scrambled to fill the power void. The three main ethnic factions in Iraq -- Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds -- are jockeying for positions in a new government. Holbrooke said Iraq's borders, created 80 years ago, are artificial and make the task of bringing factions together difficult. "The country is really three different countries," he said. "And you're not hearing a lot about democracy-building in Iraq these days from administration officials who said a lot about this before the war for a very good reason: A vote right now would result in a country tearing itself apart." Even with the official end to combat operations, there are signs that Iraq is still a dangerous place. Pockets of resistance remain. Clashes between Iraqis and U.S. military forces in Fallujah, a city west of Baghdad, illustrate lingering anti-Americanism in a city that is home to former Baath Party leaders. Three days of skirmishes this week left as many as 15 Iraqis dead and over 50 wounded. On Thursday U.S. Central Command confirmed that one group of Iraqis lobbed a grenade into a U.S. military compound in Fallujah, wounding seven U.S. soldiers. Holbrooke pointed to the U.S. military's experience in Afghanistan as a lesson for the transition in Iraq. He took issue with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's announcement in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Thursday that the majority of combat operations are over and most of that country is stable. "He couldn't possibly say that Afghanistan is secure," Holbrooke said. "Americans are being killed there rather regularly... (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai needs 24/7 protection from Americans and those terrible, terrible warlords who never should have been put been put back in control of the other cities in the country." Those warlords, he said, are also the drug lords that supply 90 percent of the heroin in the United States. Meanwhile, as the discussion about Iraq shifts from warfare to rebuilding, there is still an important outstanding issue about the United States' new responsibility in the Persian Gulf -- whether the U.S. military will find evidence of weapons of mass destruction -- the principal rationale for the war in the first place. Judy Woodruff is CNN's prime anchor and senior correspondent. She also anchors "Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics," weekdays at 3:30 pm ET.
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