Good news, as it seems Iraq is holding stead fast on Bush's attempt to ram through a "SOFA". This is an important one to watch...

Source: Talks On US-Iraq Pact At Deadend, Al J. Coverage

Talks on US-Iraq pact at 'dead end'

Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, says talks with the US on a new long-term security pact have reached a "dead end".

The US and Iraq are negotiating a new agreement to provide a legal basis for US troops to stay in Iraq after December 31, when their UN mandate expires.

They are also negotiating a long-term strategic framework agreement on political, diplomatic, economic, security and cultural ties.


"We have reached a dead end, because when we started the talks, we found that the US demands hugely infringe on the sovereignty of Iraq, and this we can never accept," al-Maliki said during a visit to Jordan on Friday.

The collapse of SOFA

The dirty secret about the Bush administration negotiations with Nouri al Maliki's government for a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) is that they hinge upon secrecy. Begun in earnest in March, all the details have been kept secret from the US Congress, the Iraqi Parliament, and the public in both countries. In fact Bush announced last year that he would not permit Congress to ratify what would be a (major) defense treaty. The American public has no enthusiasm and Iraqis across the board are deeply hostile to almost everything about SOFA. Virtually every Iraqi politician of note is suspicious if not dismissive.

Even dead-enders in the WH have been defensive in the extreme. Vague and negative details were all they'd give out, none of them being very credible: That SOFA would be "nonbinding", would not be a treaty, would not establish permanent bases, would not limit what the next president can do, etc. It was clear already last year that they realized there'd be no agreement, and hence no opportunity to lock in the next president to Bush's Iraq policies, without resort to the utmost secrecy.

The US media was happy to lend a hand. In Iraq and Iran, SOFA has been the hottest of issues all year. But until May 30th, it barely registered in American news. Take for example the leak of a draft of SOFA in early April to The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/08/iraq.usa

And so it went in the US media: silence, indifference, with a dash of perverse misinterpretation. Consider Michael Hirsh's laughably naive commentary that imagined Bush had already succeeded in nailing down SOFA, to the chagrin of Democrats.

And that appears to be the way it is happening. Maliki won't announce a break; he'll be evasive and just let it transpire, slowly. The first week of June brought clear signs that SOFA was grinding to a halt. The current draft was leaked to The Independent, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/mi...rol-840512.html and immediately the Iraqi government announced it was strongly dissatisfied with major proposals and might request an extension for the negotiations. Important political players in Iraq came out strongly against SOFA.

And Iran stepped up its pressure on Maliki too.

Bush has been wrong about virtually everything having to do with Iraq. He overplayed his hand one too many times, and SOFA is done for.



read it all

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/1...6991/487/536491

Iraq is insisting on the right to veto any US military operations throughout its territory under a "status of forces" agreement currently being negotiated between Baghdad and Washington, according to a senior member of the Iraqi government.
The agreement will last for a maximum of two years and can be terminated by either side with six months' notice, Hussain al-Shahristani, Iraq's oil minister, told the Guardian yesterday.

His remarks come amid intensive closed-door negotiations between the Iraqi and US governments which have led to complaints in the US Congress as well as Iraq that the Bush administration is tying the next US president's hands by seeking to maintain long-term bases in Iraq for possible attacks on Iran and other neighbouring states.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/1...usforeignpolicy

There were so many contractions in the Iraq-invasion rationale, that it was inevitable it'd come to a head. This is just the beginning of acknowledging the Iraq invasion as a compleat strategic blunder.