BAGHDAD - American influence has so dwindled in Iraq over the last several months that Iraqi lawmakers and political leaders say they no longer follow Washington's advice for forming a government.
Instead, Iraqis are turning to neighboring nations, and especially Iran, for guidance - casting doubt on the future of the American role in this strategic country after a grinding war that killed more than 4,400 U.S. soldiers.
"The Iraqi politicians are not responding to the U.S. like before. We don't pay great attention to them," Shiite lawmaker Sami al-Askari, a close ally of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said Thursday. "The weak American role has given the region's countries a greater sense of influence on Iraqi affairs."
Vice President Joe Biden, the administration's point man for Iraq, has doggedly lobbied Iraqi leaders, both on the phone and in six trips here over the past two years.
Iraqis, however, measure U.S. influence largely by its military presence, which dipped by threefold from the war's peak to 50,000 troops in late August. As a result, Baghdad is now brushing off U.S. urgings to slow-walk a new government instead of rushing one through that might cater to Iran.
"The Iranian ambassador has a bigger role in Iraq than Biden," said a prominent Kurdish lawmaker, Mahmoud Othman. He said the Americans "will leave Iraq with its problems, thus their influence has become weak."
One problem that could worsen as a result is the sectarian divide - particularly if the secular but Sunni-backed Iraqiya political coalition, which won the most votes in the March election, is left out of a new Shiite-led government led by al-Maliki.
Many Iraqis, particularly minority Sunnis, would view such a government as "blessed by Iran and evidence of America's relative weakness," analyst Michael Knights wrote on the website of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. This perception could lead to a surge in violence.
But Iraq cannot afford to ignore completely what Washington wants. For one, that could bring the end of U.S. help and financial backing to broker $13 billion worth of contracts for military equipment.
It also would all but dash any hopes by Baghdad to renegotiate a security agreement that is set to expire at the end of 2011 - a needed step to keeping some U.S. forces in Iraq to continue training its fledgling air force and protect its borders.
US toll in Iraq
4,429
Deaths
31,964
Wounded
SOURCE: Department of Defense
