In Iraq, Biden plays booster

Tension palpable on surprise visit to country in turmoil

U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq get a greeting from Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq get a greeting from Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

BAGHDAD -- Vice President Joe Biden, on a surprise visit, pressed Iraq on Thursday not to let its crippling political crisis upend hard-fought gains against the Islamic State extremist group.

photo

AP

Vice President Joe Biden is greeted by U.S. Ambassador Stuart Jones after stepping off a C-17 upon his arrival Thursday for a surprise visit to Baghdad. Biden urged Iraq’s leaders not to let the country’s political crisis undermine gains made against Islamic State militants.

Biden arrived in Baghdad on an unannounced trip, his first to Iraq in nearly five years. Officials said the stop was planned before Iraq's political system descended into turmoil, hindering U.S.-led efforts to defeat extremists who control parts of both Iraq and Syria.

Sitting down with Iraq's leaders, he praised them for working "very, very hard" to construct a new Cabinet and touted progress wresting back territory from the Islamic State.

"It's real, it's serious, and it's committed," Biden said as he met with parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri, a Sunni politician facing calls from his colleagues to resign.

Still, the anxious undertones of Biden's brief visit were clear from the moment he stepped off a military transport plane into blistering heat after an overnight flight from Washington. White House staff members wore body armor and helmets as Biden was whisked by helicopter to the relative safety of the heavily fortified Green Zone, reminders of the dire security situation even in Iraq's capital.

Biden's visit came during a wave of tense protests and demands for sweeping political change that has paralyzed a government already struggling to tackle a dire economic crisis and battle the Islamic State. The United States has deployed more troops and equipment in hopes of putting Iraq on a better path as President Barack Obama prepares to leave office in January.

Though there's been progress in wresting back territory from the Islamic State and weakening its leadership, senior U.S. officials traveling with Biden said any lost momentum would likely be because of political unrest rather than military shortcomings. Chaotic politics are nothing new in Iraq, but the present infighting risks becoming a distraction, with politicians more focused on keeping their jobs than fighting the Islamic State, said the officials, who weren't authorized to speak on the record.

While Obama and Biden came into office pledging to end the war -- and did so in 2011 -- U.S. troops returned here in 2014 amid the rise of Islamic State violence.

Obama now acknowledges that his goal of defeating the militants won't be realized during his presidency.

Still, this month Obama agreed to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq, raising the authorized total to just more than 4,000, and to send Apache helicopters into the fight. Biden thanked some of those troops and American diplomats during a visit to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, where he alluded to the deep sectarian divides still plaguing Iraq long after U.S.-led forces toppled the late dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.

"Think of all the places we are today trying to keep the peace, all the places we've sent you guys and women," Biden said. "They're places where because of history, we've drawn artificial lines, creating artificial states, made up of totally distinct ethnic, religious cultural groups and said, 'Have at it. Live together.'"

Biden, as a U.S. senator in 2006, proposed dividing Iraq into semiautonomous regions for Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis. Though that plan wasn't adopted, the persistent strains among the groups that have flared recently in Iraq's government illustrate the difficulty in holding the country together.

The current round of turmoil grew out of weeks of rallies by followers of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demanding an end to pervasive corruption and mismanagement. Thousands have protested just outside Baghdad's Green Zone, calling for politicians to be replaced by independent technocrats and for Iraq's powerful Shiite militias to be brought into key ministries.

At the center of the crisis is Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a Shiite who met with Biden on Thursday at one of Saddam's grandiose former palaces. Long overdue to deliver on his promises for change, Al-Abadi is caught between ordinary Iraqis pleading for government accountability and entrenched political blocks reluctant to give up a powerful patronage system.

Last month, al-Abadi pulled troops fighting the Islamic State on the front lines to protect Baghdad during the protests, and other Arab nations won't provide Iraq more financial support until it gets its political act together. An economic crisis spurred by collapsing oil prices has further compounded Iraq's troubles.

Biden said he and al-Abadi discussed plans for retaking the key northern city of Mosul, an immense challenge for Iraqi forces and their U.S. backers. Biden said he was "very optimistic," though U.S. officials predict a long road ahead.

"If you think about it, the history of the region is a nightmare from which everyone is trying to awake," Biden said of Iraq and the Middle East.

After departing Iraq, Biden was flying to Rome to speak today about cancer research at the Vatican during a conference attended by Pope Francis.

A Section on 04/29/2016

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