Iraq's Cabinet Approves Security Agreement With US

Iraq's cabinet approved to so-called status of forces agreement today, after Iraqi PM al-Maliki and Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, the Ayatollah Sistani, signed on to it. This gives the new pact a pretty good chance of passing the Iraqi parliament.

The main difference in the new draft text was a written-in-stone date for a complete pull out of US forces by January of 2011. Unlike the previous draft, it would not allow Iraq to request an extension of the stay of US forces in the country.Nor would it allow the Iraqis the power to subject US troops to Iraqi law, something they wanted.

Keep in mind that Barack Obama has promised to pull all US troops out of Iraq by July of 2010, 16 months after he's inaugurated...and that this agreement would not affect his ability to do that in the least.

Since the Iraqis are adamant about not allowing US bases in their country or allowing US forces in Iraq to act against Iran, I suppose sooner is better than later.

We've essentially set up a Shiite dominated Islamic republic in Iraq with sharia as its basis that enthusiastically participates in an anti-Israel boycott that's against US law and that
persecutes Christians, homosexuals, and other 'undesirables'...although the internecine warfare between Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis seems to be calmed down for now. That stability may last for some time, thanks to the US -equipped and trained Shiite army we put together for Iraq.

President Bush's self-professed goals for Iraq was for a country that was stable, democratic and an ally in what the president still likes to call 'the war on terror.'
It looks like it's mission accomplished (to borrow that turgid phrase) on the first goal, while the other two were always destined to fall by the wayside, given the way we mismanaged things. All this was readily apparent to me some time ago.

On the other hand, there's the plus side of the ledger - courtesy of our warriors and Generals Petraeus and Ordiano, we have a major defeat of al-Qaeda and a heck of a lot of dead jihadis to our credit.And hopefully a few lessons learned.