By Jessica Ramirez

In the weeks before Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling wrapped up his time as commander of Multi-National Division North Iraq, an Iraqi soldier struck up a conversation with him on the streets of Mosul. “General, our blood has come together and sprinkled the ground of Iraq," the soldier told him. “From that blood the seeds of liberty will grow.”

Hertling recounted this exchange in a gym at Forward Operating Base Speicher near Tikrit during the transfer of authority ceremony to the incoming Task Force Lightening this week. His point—the bloodshed that has swept Northern Iraq is real, but so is the progress.

When Hertling and his 1st Armored Division arrived in October 2007, the surge was showing signs of success in Baghdad and Al Qaeda’s presence in Anbar Province was weakening. By comparison, the situation in the North had grown bleak. The economy was at a standstill, and the region was headed toward its worst drought in about 15 years. There were roughly 1,800 attacks a month in the area, and Qaeda had sunk its teeth into cities like Mosul and Baqubah, where murders for hire and suicide attacks became as normal as shopping at the local markets.

In the past 14 months, U.S. and Iraqi forces were able to put a severe dent in the statistics, bringing attacks down to 108 for last week. They also helped train some of the five Iraqi Army divisions in operation as well as the more than76,000 Iraqi police officers. Local tribal leaders played their part in the reduction of violence as well, and the fruit of their labor is reflected in the local economy. The continued drop in overall attacks against the North’s oil pipeline was key to the rise in its crude oil exports. Provincial Reconstruction Teams also worked to build and rebuild critical parts of the area’s infrastructure.

But improvements have come at a price. At least 104 U.S. soldiers were killed and 891 were wounded during this period. There are also an unknown, but certainly large number of Iraqi lives that were lost. Even with the “monumental” success that Hertling spoke of, the North remains the most dangerous part of Iraq. Places like Mosul are still Qaeda targets and tensions between ethnic Kurds and Arabs in the region remain strong. Not even Iraqi security forces are immune to the troubles. Enemy combatants have infiltrated them three times in the last 12 months and American soldiers were shot or murdered in each instance.

As of this week, it’s up to Maj. Gen. Robert Caslen, who replaces Hertling, to keep the precarious peace. That could prove to be a unique challenge come January 1, 2009 when the Status-of-Forces Agreement, referred to as the SOFA, goes into effect. Under the SOFA, the Coalition Forces will hand over all bases to Iraqis by July. In a press conference held in the gym’s weight room following the handover ceremony at Speicher, Iraqi journalists questioned Caslen about the role of his forces in the coming year.

Caslen suggested their presence in the area will be more like that of “guests.” They will leave the bases in the cities, which is part of the agreement, and work as a support system for Iraqis in the North. If the Iraqi government happens to want Coalition forces in towns like Mosul, Caslen says they have that option. The Iraqi journalists seemed happy with the response, if not totally convinced by it.

However the partnership between the two countries plays out, the battle for Iraq is entering a new phase. As the Iraqi soldier from Mosul said to Hertling, there have been plenty of blood-soaked seeds scattered all over this country. Have they sprouted liberty? We’re about to find out.