Locked in: Bush tries to tie the U.S. to Iraq after he's gone
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Bush administration is attempting to determine the future of U.S. involvement in Iraq long after it leaves office by "negotiating" an accord with the occupation government of Iraq.
What it is doing looks innocuous enough on the surface. The United States may have some forces in Iraq in the future, although questions like whether or not, how many and doing what should be decided by the president who succeeds George W. Bush next year. The United States has forces in many countries around the world, some carrying out training, supply and other very routine functions. Their status in a given country is normally determined by what is called a status-of-forces agreement, or SOFA, arrived at with the government of the country concerned.
But what the administration is up to in Iraq at the moment is very different from that. First, the potential agreement itself is different. It would include, for example, the activities of the ubiquitous contractors, such as the security firm accused of killing Iraqis with impunity, Blackwater. It would include, for example, a U.S. guarantee of the internal as well as external security of the Iraqi government. That's a stunning thought in itself.
Second, there is the very real question of whether the government with which the United States is in principle negotiating, that of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki, is a real government. It arrived in power with 130,000 U.S. forces in the country and remains in power only with the support of the 160,000 Americans there now. The al-Maliki government is a U.S. occupation government. Its future, once American forces leave, is not something one would want to bet the house on.
The most important point, however, apart from the fact that the Bush administration is trying to nail in place an unsatisfactory status quo for long after it is gone, is the fact that it claims to be negotiating an agreement, not a treaty. If it is accepted that the al-Maliki regime is a government, then an agreement of the nature of this one is not a simple SOFA -- it is a treaty.
Treaties between the United States and other nations require Senate ratification. Mr. Bush and his associates know quite well that obtaining Senate approval would require, at the least, public hearings on the accord, which is to say, open, critical discussion of it. That is something they definitely do not want, nor is it likely that the Senate would approve an agreement that they would want, particularly in the year of an election in which the Iraq war is one of the key issues.
So, Americans are confronted once more with a fast move by the Bush administration in pursuit of continuing its war in one form or another, as long as possible. Fortunately, Congress seems to be on to this maneuver. It must stay on top of it and not let the administration in its dying days staple the United States to Iraq until the end of time.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08026/852364-192.stm