Iraakse legersnipers werden op daken langs de brede wegen neergestreken die tot het vierkant op een verkeersrotonde leiden die met fonteinen en groen wordt verfraaid. Effigy van Bush, in een kostuum en een band en het dragen van een aktentas, bengelde voor uren aangezien de menigte, die zich voor verscheidene blokken uitrekte, in gebed knielde en aan clerics luisterde het Statuut van de Overeenkomst van Krachten aan de kaak stelt.

Het pact, dat het parlement wordt verondersteld om over volgende week te stemmen, vereist Amerikaanse gevechtstroepen om zich van Iraakse steden, steden en dorpen tegen eind de komende maand juni en reeksen terug te trekken Dec. 31, 2011, uiterste termijn voor de terugtrekking van de V.S. krachten van Irak. Maar sommige mensen die in de menigte worden geïnterviewde drongen erop aan dat het pact geen terugtrekkingsuiterste termijnen had. Anderen zeiden dat wat het pact zei, zij niet op de V.S. vertrouwden. of Iraakse overheden om door het te verblijven.

„Zij willen houden uitbreidend en uitbreidend,“ Bassim Hamoud, gekleed in een bovengenoemd lavendeloverhemd en gedrukte beige broeken, aangezien hij één van de Iraakse legercontroleposten opgezet op de rand van de verzameling naderde. „Als er een concrete tijdslimiet was, zouden wij voor het.“ gaan

Gevraagde hoe laat grens die hij voor de V.S. heeft gewild. de terugtrekking, Hamoud antwoordde, „wij willen hen vandaag weggaan.“

Protesters' de commentaren vormden een weerspiegeling zowel van het gebrek aan kennis van het pact als van het wantrouwen vele Irakezen naar hun overheid en Amerikanen als resultaat van unmet beloften sinds de V.S. - geleide invasie voelen. At the time the Hussein statue was toppled, most Iraqis weren’t expecting that nearly six years down the line, they would still be living in a city with spotty electricity, sewage running through the streets of their neighborhoods, military checkpoints choking traffic and bombs going off regularly.

Loyalists of hard-line anti-U.S. leaders such as Sadr say that the violence would decrease if the Americans left and that Iraqis would be able to fix their own problems. As long as U.S. forces stay, they say, Iraq never will be sovereign.

“They will not leave,” said Abed Sahib Mohammed Hadi, an elderly man in a beige suit. “If they wanted to leave they would never have built those huge bases.

“We don’t even know what’s in the pact,” he added. “It’s never been presented to the people.”

The pact has been explained to the public at least twice by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, whose support propelled it through the Cabinet on Sunday and onto the floor of the parliament. Legislators loyal to Sadr tried to prevent the reading of the pact in the parliament, leading to a brawl in the chamber Tuesday and stalling debate.

If a vote is not held early next week, before a scheduled holiday, the parliament could have trouble meeting the Dec. 31, 2008, deadline when the United Nations mandate governing the presence of U.S. troops here expires. If the pact isn’t passed by then, American forces will have no legal basis for being in Iraq.

On Friday, the crowd that swarmed central Baghdad was far different from the one that gathered around the Hussein statue in April 2003 and cheered as a U.S. tank helped yank down the structure. Chants of “No, no, no to the occupiers!” rose from the protesters. Iraqi flags fluttered in the breeze, along with giant posters of Sadr. Even after prayers had begun, men with colorful prayer mats under their arms streamed in from distant neighborhoods to join the gathering.

No official estimate of the crowd was given, though it appeared to be in the tens of thousands.

There was a heavy Iraqi military presence, but it remained on the edges of the crowd and kept watch from rooftops along the route, including from the mosque overlooking Firdos Square. Residents stood on their balconies or leaned out windows to watch the surging crowd.

After the effigy was dragged to the ground, protesters began jumping on it, even stamping out flames that erupted after someone set it afire.

It is doubtful that opponents can muster enough votes in parliament to kill the pact. But their vocal opposition and Friday’s protest show that Maliki does not have the broad-based backing for the pact that he had sought. Passing it by a thin margin would make it difficult to mend the political divisions that have hobbled Iraq’s government. It also could give hard-line members of Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia an excuse for resuming attacks on U.S. and Iraqi security forces after months of relative quiet.

“This is a normal consequence: more fighting,” said Mohammed Ismael, a 17-year-old student from Sadr City — the sort of young man ripe for recruitment into the Mahdi Army. “We are against this agreement and we will resist it in any way we can.”

Susman and Ahmed are Times staff writers.