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Hurdles In Iraq`s Next Phase

Iraq`s election may be over, but for the United States the trickiest challenges and the issues most critical to a timetable for U.S. withdrawal are still to unfold over the next nine or 10 months. Iraqis have elected a government but still have to prove that they can rule. Two Iraqi interim governments over the past 18 months left a trail of political bitterness, rampant corruption and chronic inefficiency, with militias playing a growing role as instruments of political coercion, Iraq experts say.

Whoever the winners turn out to be in last week`s election, they will still rely heavily on the United States as a power broker next year in helping to form a government, rewrite the constitution, build up the army and police, jump-start the floundering economy and prevent a civil war. Iraqis are too divided to do many of these tasks alone, experts say.

The toughest job facing U.S. officials comes after the new government takes office, when the Council of Representatives, the renamed National Assembly, reopens debate on the constitution. Iraqis now have four months of negotiations to finally answer the contentious issue of how to apportion power and allocate oil riches in a federalized state. Only American intervention prevented a breakdown in constitutional talks in the fall, a U.S.-brokered compromise deferred the toughest issues until after the election last Thursday.