With the US combat mission officially at an end Iraq is a step closer to independence, but contrary to what its leaders proclaim the country is still far from sovereign, analysts say.
The end of US combat operations has raised fears of spiraling violence in Iraq where sectarian bloodshed killed tens of thousands after the 2003 US-led invasion.
Bombs remain a daily occurrence and attacks against Iraq's security forces have been rising. Frustrations are also increasing over a political stalemate six months after an inconclusive election.
"Obama is wrong. When they first entered Iraq, it was based on developing Iraq. Now we are on the verge of a chasm. He left us in the middle," said 55-year-old laborer Nafae Sami.
"There are still some political problems which have not been solved. He didn't solve the problem. The government is not formed yet." Iraq's main Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions remain locked in a dispute over positions and power, unable to agree on a coalition government.
A Sunni-backed cross-sectarian alliance headed by ex-premier Iyad Allawi won two more seats than Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki's Shiite-led bloc in the March 7 vote, but neither has the majority needed to govern.
"He (Obama) doesn't care what will happen to Iraq. They withdraw from the country and the country is not yet stable. How could they withdraw?" 40-year-old Mohammed Kadhim, who owns a shop selling spare parts for cars, said.
The number of US troops in Iraq has dropped to under 50,000 ahead of a full withdrawal by the end of 2011, as dictated by a bilateral security pact.
Many Iraqis are concerned their own security forces will not be able to provide stability in the war-torn country.
The United States says it is not disengaging from Iraq, but changing its relationship to a diplomatic and economic one. The remaining US troops will provide assistance in training Iraq's forces as they lead the fight against Sunni Islamist insurgents and Shiite militia.
US Vice President Joe Biden flew into Iraq on Monday to assure Iraqis the United States is not abandoning them, joined by Defense Secretary Robert Gates for a ceremony at which a new US general took command of military operations in Iraq.
Biden called on Iraqi leaders to speed up the process of forming a government.
"They said they have withdrawn, but they are still controlling us. They are the ones who make the decisions in Iraq," Um Ahmed, a 42-year-old housewife, said.
Seven years of occupation and two decades of United Nations sanctions that followed Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait have so disabled this once regional powerhouse that it is still in great need of the United States, they say.
"Iraq has for years been trying to recover its sovereignty," said Hamid Fadel, who teaches political science at Baghdad University.
"The gradual withdrawal of the US army can be a step in this direction, but many obstacles remain in between," he said.
For Fadel, the supposed sovereignty of Iraq is also contradicted by the "preponderant" US role in the country, particularly on security issues, and UN sanctions which give the New York-based institution considerable power here.
"Baghdad is still under Chapter 7 of the UN charter," he said, which means 20 years after the invasion of Kuwait, Iraq is still the target of drastic sanctions of the Security Council.
Chief among them is the requirement to pay five percent of oil revenues into a UN special fund, which handles war reparations, and to which Iraq has paid $30 billion so far.
"Iraq still needs the American umbrella. It is unable to protect itself from external attacks," Fadel added.
For Ihsan Al-Shammari, a political economist at Baghdad University, it is difficult to speak about Iraqi independence when 49,700 troops remain stationed in his country.
"The withdrawal was a commitment that Obama intended to keep, and it was symbolic," he said.
"When he announced the end of combat missions at the White House it felt like the speech was intended for Americans, not Iraqis," Al-Shammari added.
Aziz Jabr, a professor at Baghdad's Mustansiriya University was of the same opinion, reflecting on Iraq's weakness when compared against regional rivals.
"Iraq does not have a deterrent power vis-a-vis its neighbors -- Iran, Turkey, Syria and Saudi Arabia," he said, recalling comments by Iraq's top army officer, Lt. Gen. Babaker Zebari, who last month urged US troops to stay until 2020.
For security inside Iraq, the end of US combat missions means that Iraqi forces alone are now responsible.
For Jabr, the main weakness of the security forces in the fight against insurgents is in collating intelligence.
"They are able to collect information, but not to analyze it," he said, in an opinion shared by Shammari.
"The war against terrorism does not depend on military might, but on intelligence," Shammari said. "To arm and train the Iraqi forces was clearly not sufficient."
