Richard WarnickRevealed: Secret plan to keep Iraq under permanent US occupation
Watch CNN and most of the American news media ignore this story. Patrick Cockburn of The Independent reports: A secret treaty being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November.
Under the terms of the new treaty, the Americans would retain the long-term use of more than 50 bases in Iraq. American negotiators are also demanding immunity from Iraqi law for US troops and contractors, and a free hand to carry out arrests and conduct military activities in Iraq without consulting the Baghdad government.
What’s still unknown is how the Bush administration expects the Iraqi parliament to approve the permanent occupation deal. Yesterday, in Rep. Bill Delahunt’s (D-MA) foreign affairs subcommittee, two Iraqi MPs, Sheikh Khalaf al-Ulayyan from Sunni Anbar Province and Prof. Nadeem al-Jaberi from Shiite Baghdad, vigorously denounced the proposed treaty. Rep. Delahunt also released a letter from 31 Iraqi legislators asserting that the proposed agreement is opposed by a majority of the parliament if it does not include a specific timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. military troops.
Even if the Iraqis sign the treaty under duress, how can Bush circumvent Congress? The Constitution (Article II, Section 2, Clause 2) requires approval of two-thirds of the Senate for any treaty.
The Asia Times points out that there are actually two treaties being secretly negotiated: a Status of Forces Agreement, which sets up the legal basis for the presence of US troops in Iraq, and a Strategic Framework Agreement, which would include other bilateral commitments such as security guarantees. Together, they “would turn Iraq into a virtual colony of the United States.”
UPDATE: Today Ambassador Ryan Crocker told reporters at the State Department that the Bush administration is not trying to set up permanent military bases in Iraq. But what is his definition of “permanent”? “It is not going to be forever,” he said.
UPDATE: The secret agreement is only a secret here, says dday. The Iraqis knew about it months ago.
June 5th, 2008 at 10:24 am
HA! I told you Richard.
Didn’t I suggest to you long ago that you needed to look at the strategy in Iraq from the premise that the administration has always had EVERY intention of staying there.
Through that lens, everything makes sense. Like firing the Iraqi Army. NOT properly training Iraqi army. NOT securing ammunition dumps, etc, etc.
You are SOOOOO naive.
…and I love you
June 5th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Cliff, you may recall the Bush administration’s initial plan in 2003, if it could be called that, was to put a puppet government in charge of the country and withdraw most combat forces almost immediately. That was a non-starter, and so was Plan B, Plan C, Plan D…
The idea of making Iraq an American protectorate was always a neocon fantasy. They just haven’t awakened to reality yet. I’d say that hoping to keep control of Iraq indefinitely is just more evidence of Bush administration incompetence.
Everyone knows by now that the invasion of Iraq was about permanent bases and oil, and had nothing to do with terrorism, WMD, democracy, or human rights. However the lesson of history is that bases in Iraq are strategic liabilities, not assets. Our bases are the successors of British bases that had to be abandoned in the 1950s.
June 5th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
All those bases we built for the Iraqi people, and they’re not even thankful.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Maybe Barack Obama wants Iraq to become one the extra states when he said he wants to be President of all 57 States.
June 10th, 2008 at 11:37 am
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