SULEIMANIYAH, Iraq -- IS AMERICA going to withdraw? This question is on everyone’s lips here in Iraqi Kurdistan, which prides itself on being America’s staunchest ally in the region. From the sprawling Bazaar of Suleimaniyah, to the blighted refugee camp of Atrosh, people from all walks of life are watching the debate in Washington with increasing anxiety.

At a time when Iraqi Kurdistan is yearning for greater engagement with the West, politicians in Washington appear to ignore the gains made in this region to date. While the rest of Iraq can legitimately be described as a quagmire, northern Iraq is, by contrast, surprisingly secure, increasingly prosperous and impressively tolerant. After many years of persecution, Iraq’s Kurds now represent the best hope for the birth of a functional civil society inside Iraq.

We should invest in this hope. So far, American society has depended exclusively on its young people in uniform and on contractors to spearhead the post-war transition. However, the good stewardship of this effort is a responsibility shared by all Americans, not just the military. The bulk of America’s private foundations and professional organizations appear completely divested from this endeavor. This may prove a costly mistake.

The media and the political establishment share responsibility for failing to mobilize America’s vast civilian resources in support of the country’s mission.

Day-to-day media reports read like a casualty count. As important as it is to inform the public about the heart-wrenching human cost of this war, we also owe it to the young men and women who risk their lives for our security to follow up on the gains they occasionally achieve with a wider investment of civilian resources.

To hold and stabilize the areas U.S. troops clear of terrorists, we must be ready to show the Iraqi people more than just our fists. Terrorism is bound to persist in certain areas of Iraq. But the death toll terrorists create should not blind us to the vast array of challenges facing the Iraqi people. And certainly, it should not blind us to the fact that our civilian institutions have a critical role to play in helping the country’s more stable regions move forward.

Iraqi Kurdistan is a prime candidate to host such non-governmental organizations. Ironically, there were far more such institutions operating in this region before the war than today.

The U.N. and the European Union are reluctant to engage. Growing political fatalism in Washington compounds the problem. The debate revolves almost exclusively around the timing of a U.S. troop withdrawal — this, despite widespread fears that a bloody civil war would ensue.

This is not a recipe for success.

The debate begs to be reframed. It has become obvious in the past several years that the war in Iraq is being fought battle by battle on a regional level. In areas (such as Iraqi Kurdistan) where the security threat is lowest, there is no excuse not to engage more thoroughly in the erection of a functional civil society.

Specifically, there is an eagerness on the part of many Iraqis, including doctors, lawyers, journalists, entrepreneurs and academics, to have deeper and more meaningful exchanges with their counterparts in the United States. Rather than facilitating such exchanges, the State Department has placed barriers on direct bilateral contacts between Iraqi and American professionals.

Take Dr. Shamal Shareef, a 36-year-old physician, and long-term opponent to Saddam Hussein’s regime. After spending the past year working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Iraq, he received a grant to attend a six-week training seminar in the States. Like many Iraqis who receive similar invitations, he was unable to obtain a visa to travel. Iraq’s professional communities feel completely isolated from the world. Those among them who worked most closely with the United States are growing increasingly bitter at what they perceive as a “one-sided friendship.”

Unless we engage Iraq’s civil society in a more sustained way, where possible, then the military investment made to date will have been in vain. The U.S. military has done an impressive job under excruciatingly difficult circumstances. But, by most accounts, it is now over-stretched, exhausted, and far too busy in its armed mission to engage Iraq’s civilian institutions. Doctors at the Emergency Trauma Hospital and Burn Unit in Erbil have witnessed this first hand. The Iraqi physicians explained that, despite frequent visits by U.S. military surgeons, and promises of help, the Americans never came through on their pledges. While the Iraqis understood that the American surgeons were probably overworked, they could not understand why more Americans did not participate in exchanges and medical teaching in Iraq, especially in the stable Kurdish provinces.

The war effort’s success is not solely a function of the military’s performance. It is also dependent on how much average Americans actually care about the future of the population whose country they invaded.

In answer to the question of America’s withdrawal, posed to us by dozens of Iraqis (Arabic and Kurdish alike), we explained that, given the political climate in Washington, U.S. troops would probably redeploy to less exposed positions in coming years. If this reading is correct, it is essential that policy makers redouble their efforts to encourage the formation of more civilian relationships between American enterprises and foundations and those Iraqi groups that have been welcoming and trustworthy allies from the beginning of the conflict.

A strong show of support for Iraqi Kurdistan’s emerging economy and institutions will strengthen America’s position in Iraq. The United States has now shown how it treats its enemies. The question on most people’s minds is how it will treat its friends.

Michael Soussan, an occasional contributor, and a lecturer at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs, is a former program coordinator for the United Nations Iraq program. Amir Afkhami, a physician and historian, teaches at the Department of Psychiatry and the School of Public Health and Health Services of the George Washington University Medical Center.