Author: Jonathan Schwarz

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wants to U.S. to stay in Iraq for some time, because we keep him in power. But Iraqis want us to get the hell out as soon as possible, and certainly don’t want U.S. soldiers to go around killing people with impunity. And the Iraqi government is somewhat vulnerable to public pressure—in fact, seemingly more than the U.S. government. How can al-Maliki square this circle?

The draft U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement is now available from the American Friends Service Committee in a translation by Raed Jarrar (pdf) from the Arabic version. It shows how al-Maliki is trying to do it.

First of all, “U.S. forces shall withdraw from Iraqi territories no later than December 31st, 2011.” However, “the Iraqi government is permitted to ask the U.S. government to keep specific forces for the purposes of training and support of the Iraqi security forces…Or, the Iraqi government might ask for an extension [before troops are withdrawn].” (Article Twenty-Five, page 14) So the deadline has no teeth, and the SOFA is already looking forward to U.S. troops staying there even after the “withdrawal.”

Secondly, al-Maliki has been trumpeting his opposition to immunity for U.S. troops, and claims this agreement doesn’t provide that. But let’s look at the fine print (in Article Twelve, pages 7-8). To start with:

U.S. has the primary legal jurisdiction over U.S. armed forces members and civilian members concerning issues that occur inside the installations and areas agreed upon, and while they are on duty outside the installations.

Iraq is in charge only under extremely limited circumstances:

Iraq has the primary legal jurisdiction over armed forces members and civilian members in cases of major and intentional crimes…that takes place outside areas and installations agreed upon while troops are off duty.

Moreover, any U.S. personnel arrested under these extremely limited circumstances will be held by the U.S.:

All members of U.S. armed forces or civilian members must be handed over to the U.S. as soon as they are arrested by the Iraqi authorities. When Iraq is exercising its legal jurisdictio…the U.S. authorities shall manage the tasks of detention of U.S. armed forces or civilian contractors.

And who decides whether these extremely limited circumstances apply? That would be the U.S.:

The U.S. authorities [will] submit, in accordance to paragraphs 1 and 2 of this article, a declaration explaining whether the alleged crime occurred while suspects where off duty or on duty. In case the Iraqi authorities think the conditions require such a decision to be reviewed or change…the U.S. authorities takes into consideration all the conditions, events and any other information submitted by the Iraqi authorities that might have an effect on changing the U.S. authorities decision.

Will this teeny-tiny figleaf be enough to get the Iraqi parliament and Iraqis generally to submit to the SOFA agreement? Probably not. According to Al-Hayat, even ISCI, part of al-Maliki’s main bloc of support in the Iraqi parliament, has serious reservations.

ALSO: Note that the SOFA has been published in an Iraqi newspaper, but not in any American ones. So not only is the Iraqi legislative branch more independent than ours, their media is too.

I disapprove of using awkward pictures to make fun of people you disagree with politically.

However, I will make an exception this one time.

From another angle:

In any case, the point here really isn’t that John McCain is a ridiculous person. It’s that he’s a person, and hence ridiculous.

Sadly, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz was injured in an accident last week at his second job laying railroad track. A malfunctioning explosive charge blew a four foot long tamping iron through his skull, destroying most of the front left section of his brain.

Remarkably, however, just like in the case of Phineas Gage in 1848, Kurtz survived. After filing down the two protruding ends of the steel spike, doctors today allowed Kurtz to return to his show on CNN, while emphasizing that he should keep his hair combed over the giant gaping hole in his skull.

Immediately after his injury Kurtz had, like Gage, seemed remarkably unaffected. But he’s now started making the kinds of statements people do only when they have giant spikes embedded in their brains:

KURTZ: I’m certainly not saying that what people say at these rallies, particularly if it’s ugly stuff, shouldn’t be covered. It’s part of the story. But it seems that the press has kind of adopted this theme that McCain and Palin are stoking the anger…

I was in Indiana with Obama this week. And there was some nut job in the crowd who started screaming about Obama was going to bring about the new world order, and he was ejected from the scene and people booed. Hardly anybody reported that because, who cared? But it seems to me that in the case of McCain and Palin, we have decided that they are somehow responsible for this. And I just question whether that’s fair.

Unfortunately, Kurtz’s guest Candy Crowley had not been told of his accident, and reacted like this:

CROWLEY: Right, Howie—those two things are exactly the same. I mean, just as Palin and McCain keep talking about how Obama palls around with terrorists, Obama won’t shut up about how he’s a Secret Grand Dragon of the New World Order. Jesus Christ Almighty, do you have a giant steel spike embedded in your brain or something?

This led to several embarrassing moments for everyone concerned.

Paul Krugman wins the “Nobel” Prize for Economics.

Gosh, I wonder what Sweden’s central bank is trying to tell us?

Laura Rozen’s new Mother Jones piece on McCain’s main foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann is a great thing to read today, because it makes you grateful to the current financial implosion for keeping these lunatics out of office:

Brooke says he met Scheunemann in 1996 when he and Chalabi were hitting Capitol Hill to try to drum up increased US government support for the Iraqi opposition. Brooke’s pitch then was that putting pressure on Saddam Hussein was not just the right policy; it was also a vehicle for attacking Bill Clinton, then running for reelection. “I thought it was a good time to educate the Republican Congress…and give them the ammunition they needed to beat the president up.” In Scheunemann and other hardliners on the Hill, Brooke says he found kindred spirits—a clique of Republicans deeply disillusioned with how George H.W. Bush had let both the Cold War and the first Iraq War end without meting out sufficient punishment to America’s adversaries. “These people had a great sense of psychic loss that we had not finished the first Iraq War in the most comprehensive way. They hated George Bush the first.”

The rest is even worse.