Iraq Watch: DickFail

By GottaLaff

The Failed Nation of Dick fails again. How can one person be so wrong so often? I suppose if we really wanted an answer to that, we could go to Miss Personality Disorder... or BushCo en masse. Now DickFail is showing what a giant burlap bag of hindquarters he is on the subject of Iraq... again:

Cheney argued the Obama administration's policy may produce a new round of violence and squander recent gains. What Cheney neglected to mention is that the Obama administration is simply following through on the SOFA deal negotiated by the Bush/Cheney administration.

As Fred Kaplan explained the other day, "[T]he withdrawal is not the doing of President Barack Obama. Rather, it was negotiated during the Bush administration, at -- more to the point -- the Iraqi government's insistence. The Iraqis are the ones who wanted, and ordered, us out. Even if John McCain had won the 2008 election, we'd still be pulling out of Iraq's cities."

If Cheney doesn't like the Status of Forces Agreement, signed in November 2008, he should take it up with Bush.

Take it up with Bush? He never did that while in office, why start now?

Iraqi Gov’t Spokesman: U.S. Troops Needed for Maybe 10 Years

By GottaLaff

Off topic (that was Snark for, "Is there any news other than BlagObamEmanuel news?"):

According to McClatchy, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh has been up to some trifling stuff, saying in an interview in Washington that U.S. troops might be needed for another ten years, despite the Status of Forces Agreement’s provisions to end the occupation by Dec. 2011:

“We do understand that the Iraqi military is not going to get built out in the three years. We do need many more years. It might be 10 years,” he said.

The Iraqi political figures interviewed by McClatchy are incensed at Dabbagh’s statements. But they have a Plan B:

“We expected something odd,” said Alaa Maki, a member of a Sunni Muslim political bloc that’s forced Maliki to put the security agreement before voters as a referendum next year. “That is the reason we pushed for the referendum.”

I think it was extremely thoughtful of Bush to work so hard over these past several years to set all this Iraq rigamarole up for P.E. Obama. This way Obama won't have to concern himself with details like, "What's next for Iraq?". The next decade is all very nicely planned out for him.

It will save him so much time.

Welcome to the beginning of the end

By GottaLaff

Ackerman:

Iraq’s presidency council has now signed the U.S-Iraq basing accord known as the Status of Forces Agreement, meaning it’s official now. The terminus phase of the Iraq war has begun.

President Obama. 16 months. Let's get them home safely.

Iraqi parliament OKs US troops for 3 more years

By GottaLaff

And here I thought Thanksgiving would be so slow that I'd have to manufacture news, but no-o-o:

The long, costly story of American military involvement in Iraq moved closer to an end Thursday when Iraq's parliament approved a pact that requires all troops to be out in three years, marking the first clear timetable for a U.S. exit since the 2003 invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. [...]

The security deal must now be ratified by the three-member Presidential Council, which is expected to approve it. [...]

Under the pact, Iraq will have strict oversight over the nearly 150,000 American troops now on the ground, representing a step toward full sovereignty for Iraq and a shift from the sense of frustration and humiliation that many Iraqis feel at the presence of American troops on their soil for so many years.

Bush is saying this "affirms the growth" of democracy, and that the Surge worked. Bush is full of... turkey stuffing.

Hmmm. Strings? Attached or otherwise?

Iraqi lawmakers today approved a pact allowing U.S. forces to stay in the country through 2011 after winning support from skeptics by promising a public referendum on the plan. [...]

The lawmakers separately approved a resolution calling for a referendum in July 2009, during which the public will get to endorse, reject or demand amendments to the agreement. The referendum was the key demand of Sunni Arab legislators who had refused to join the parliament's ruling Shiite Muslim and Kurdish blocs in approving the agreement without the referendum promise. [...]

If voters rejected the agreement in the July 2009 referendum, Iraq's government would have to cancel SOFA or demand changes to it. The terms of the agreement allow either side to give the other a year's notice of cancellation, so if Iraq scrapped the pact, U.S. forces would have to leave the country in July 2010. [...]

"There is a provision for extension, by agreement of both sides," one U.S. official said in discussing the pact.

Just get us out of there.

Bush sold out: Pentagon Officials Fear Iraqi Control of U.S. Military Operations

By GottaLaff

From the Topics that Deserve More Attention Department here is a little SOFA news that has eluded us:

But what’s really gotten no attention, even from obsessives like myself, are the restrictions it places on U.S. military operations in Iraq over the next three years. Consider this vague language in Article 4:

All these operations will be conducted with the necessity of fully respecting the Iraqi Constitution and Iraqi Law, and conducting these operations will be without overstepping the sovereignty of Iraq and its national interests as determined by the Iraqi government. It is the duty of the U.S. to respect the laws of Iraq, its customs and traditions and valid international law. [...]

Youssef has a fantastic piece about military commanders’ concerns in this regard. They think that George W. Bush basically sold out their operational flexibility in his odd zeal to get an agreement in place. And sure enough, even though his insistence on a deal gave the Iraqis all the leverage and undid his plans for what Youssef calls “a semi-permanent occupation,” Bush didn’t reject the agreement.

As Obama’s chances to be elected president improved, the White House felt it was under more pressure. Neither the administration nor the Iraqis wanted to extend the U.N. resolution. “It turned into a very peculiar political predicament,” the officer said.

Now back to our regularly scheduled Secretary of Clinton leaks already in progress.

VIDEO: Perino celebrates Iraq War "victory"

By GottaLaff

This post by Spencer Ackerman is dead on. Cue the Jaws theme... Snark attack:

Ben Armbruster at ThinkProgress has what might count as the greatest Bush administration quote since “Mission Accomplished.” Commenting on the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino does her best George Aiken impression:

We believe that the conditions are such now that we are able to celebrate the victory that we’ve had so far and establish…a strategic framework agreement.

Yes! Just months ago, setting a date for withdrawal was abject capitulation. Today it’s victory! I don’t believe I really have to comment on why this is so painfully stupid. I’d rather start inflating balloons for V-I Day. When do you think the statues of Bush go up in Baghdad’s Firdous Square?

Dana Peroxide does it again.