The U.S. – Iraq Security Pact

The Wall Street Journal reported October 20 that the long-debated U.S. - Iraq security agreement being negotiated between the Bush administration and the Maliki government was being sent to Iraq's cabinet this week. Sending the pact to the cabinet pushes the deal one step closer to approval.

According to the Journal, "The Political Council for National Security didn't technically endorse the agreement, but decided simply to forward the draft - which sets 2011 as the goal for the withdrawal of American combat troops - to Iraq's full cabinet for consideration." If the full cabinet grants its approval, the pact would then be sent to the Iraqi parliament.

Of course, the deal's fate in the parliament is very much up in the air. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is adamantly opposed to the pact, although he is by no means the only Shiite opposition. According to the Journal, "...a key bloc of Shiite political parties in parliament, the United Iraqi Alliance, issued a statement saying more talks and changes were needed before the agreement could be approved. Because the alliance includes Mr. Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party, that statement was taken initially as a sign that the draft...had hit another snag."

The biggest sticking point has been immunity for American soldiers. The Journal says the most recent version of the pact "...calls for immunity for U.S. troops from Iraqi law, except in extreme cases while they are off duty." One has to wonder how you define "off duty" in a combat zone. American troops at war are never really "off duty." The only conceivable example would be an incident between an American soldier and an Iraqi citizen on a U.S. forward operating base outside of the soldier's normal work hours. I would suspect that such incidents are extremely rare, at best.

I am not surprised at all that the current version of the pact calls for a "goal" of 2011 as a withdrawal date for U.S. forces. Rhetoric and nationalism aside, the Iraqis in charge are smart enough to know that they have to have the flexibility to keep U.S. troops in the country until the Iraqi security forces are able to defend the government. Maliki and most of the guys in the parliament know that forcing American troops out without regard for the conditions on the ground defies all military logic and is a recipe for disaster. One can only hope that a President Obama would come to that realization as well.

One final note: I'm not crazy about this whole process. The outgoing president is negotiating a deal that will not bind the incoming president. It seems it would have been better to work a deal through congress that would have some backing during the next administration, regardless of who might win the presidency.