The official US stance on whether or not they’ll abide by the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and leave all of Iraq’s cities by the end of the month seems to change by the day. On Sunday, officials were saying it “remains to be seen.”
But today, General Ray Odierno said it was a “done deal” and that the troops will definitely be out of cities by June 30, with the exception of some trainers and advisers. Of course, reports that the US was simply labeling combat troops as trainers and redefining the borders of cities to skirt the requirement leave open the question of just how much that pledge means.
Though Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki remains adamant about wanting US troops out of the cities, US officials have said they expect him to change his mind in the end.
In the meantime, the US will be expanding its rural bases and building new ones on the outskirts of Iraqi cities. The sweltering tents and flimsy plywood houses are hardly well-suited to housing an occupation force, but it’s still far from certain if they’ll actually be used.
Thanks Bill, for some plain old uncommon sense.
Just as the phony Guantanamo detainee "problem" can be "solved" by simply treating them as POWs, I recommend another equally straightforward approach to the "problem" of allegedly unlawful behavior by the previous administration. Investigate, and where called for, indict and try the various parties.
I'm not talking lynch mob here, but rather a conventional application of the legal process to the very sort of problem for which it was designed. I would include an investigation and — if warranted — indictment of the military JAG and officer corps, the latter for obeying unlawful orders (illegal war per the UN Charter to which the US is a signatory) and the former for either failure to identify and advise re the illegal nature of the Iraq war, or, should it prove to be the case, for providing legal cover for an illegal enterprise.
Again, this would not be about revenge, but rather about affirming that the law is NOT a cobweb from which the powerful are exempt, and the US is in fact– not in myth — a nation of laws.