Exclusive: Iraq Commander Says Iraqi Election Outcome Key To U.S. Withdrawal

Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, briefs reporters on the Baghdad security plan Feb. 27, 2008 in Baghdad.
Maya Alleruzzo / The Associated Press

From McClatchy Newspapers:

BAGHDAD — One day after President Barack Obama pledged that America would begin to "responsibly leave Iraq to its people," Gen. Ray Odierno, the commanding U.S. general in Iraq, said that if the country held peaceful elections this year, the relative calm that had settled on Iraq would be "irreversible."

Iraq is to hold provincial elections Jan. 31 and national elections at the end of this year.

"If we get through this second set of elections — provincial and national elections — I think we'll be beyond that," he told McClatchy on Wednesday as he toured a sprawling marketplace in the poor Shiite Muslim district of New Baghdad. "We're slowly getting there now, but the proof will be in the elections. If we do that peaceful transfer of power, and there is peaceful conduct of legitimate, credible elections, I think that will be irreversible, frankly."

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My Comment: Peace in Iraq is completely dependent on who gets elected. There is a chance that the worse people may get to power .... thereby alienating the numerous factions and tribes in Iraq. But if the right people are elected .... most American soldiers will be home by the end of the year.