By BRIAN KATULIS

Brian Katulis is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Photo: Courtesy

This past week represented a watershed moment in the Iraq policy debate: A pragmatic consensus for a phased redeployment of U.S. troops within a specified timeframe emerged in the United States and Iraq.

As Iraqis head toward the next round of elections in their country — provincial elections and national elections sometime in the next 18 months — it's not at all surprising that Iraq's leaders would increasingly assert their own sovereignty. The idea of an extended and extensive U.S. presence in Iraq remains deeply unpopular among the majority of Iraqis, and Iraqi leaders of all sectarian, ethnic, and political backgrounds have become vocally opposed to a U.S. troop presence without limits and with no end in sight.

This past week, a range of leaders in the Iraqi government made clear that they support withdrawing U.S. combat troops by 2010. "We are hoping that in 2010 that combat troops will withdraw from Iraq," said Ali al-Dabagh, the spokesman for Iraq's prime minister, confirming Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's repeated statements on this subject. Tariq al-Hashemi, the Sunni vice president of Iraq, concurred by saying that Iraqi leaders shared a common interest in scheduling the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

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