After countless unsuccessful efforts to push Iraqis toward various political, economic and security goals, Washington is now shifting gear and, in fact, going in reverse. The US is apparently admitting it has not been right on everything concerning Iraq and, as a consequence, is letting Iraqis figure some things out for themselves. This new attitude is shown clearly in Iraq’s Parliament passing a law allowing low-ranking former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party to reclaim government jobs.

This first major piece of US-backed legislation the Iraqi Parliament has adopted is a candid admission that the US made a colossal mistake when it adopted its de-Baathification policy shortly after the 2003 invasion. The initiative, based on the de-Nazification of Germany after World War II, banned anyone who had been a member of the upper levels of the party from government employment. In Iraq, it created a huge and angry pool of unemployed men who fueled the insurgency. It meant that many senior bureaucrats who knew how to run ministries, university departments and state companies were fired, effectively stripping key government ministries, the military and top economic institutions of centuries of accumulated experience. The army was disbanded; thousands of teachers, university lecturers and civil servants were sacked. Almost five years on, after much bloodshed, it is unclear how many former Baathists will take up the offer to resume their jobs. But by any standards, the move is a key step in the reconciliation process. Much of the Sunni insurgency is centered on dismissed military men from the Baathist regime, so this is an attempt by the government to end the sectarian divide between the Shiite and Sunni communities.

There is a disadvantage that comes with this new piece of legislation: George Bush might keep US troops in Iraq just that much longer. He claims the legislation was a payoff for his decision to deploy 30,000 additional troops to the country in order to quell violence, that last year’s surge provided the Iraqi government “breathing space” to begin tackling just such legislation. If this is the case, Bush will probably not want to withdraw more than the planned 20,000 troops in July since they have enabled Iraqi leaders, according to him, to think clearly.

Still, the legislation and the US position on it indicate a new realism in Washington, a recognition that long years of grandiose plans have not worked in Iraq. The Iraqis are at the point where they are able to fashion their own approaches and desired outcomes, and Washington, in part, apparently recognizes that and in part is reflecting on its Iraqi policies over the past few years. And the Americans seem increasingly prepared to say that whatever needs to be done should be done on Iraqi terms.

The Bush administration has recently arrived at this formula not out of humility but out of desperation due to the failure of its past efforts. It is beginning to understand that Iraq needs to find an Iraqi solution to an American-made problem.