Hardly a Win for Peace - Hardly a Loss for Iraq

Monday, November 17th, the Iraqi Cabinet approved the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Iraq and the US. This agreement stipulates that all US forces will be out of Iraq by December 31, 2011. The pact still needs to be ratified by the Iraqi Parliament and a Boston Globe article, released last week, calls into question whether or not the SOFA violates the US Constitution. Representatives Lynn Woolsey and Maxine Waters have contested the agreement, preferring to hold off until President-elect Barack Obama takes office.

The 3-year agreement is hardly positive considering our newly elected President has stated publicly that he would bring most US forces home in 16 months. It is, however, a positive step from where we were only months ago.

With this agreement the Iraqis have put the timetable for withdrawal in their own court and declared the US must be held accountable for at least some of its actions in Iraq.

According to the draft:

US troops must be withdrawn from Iraqi cities and towns by summer of 2009 and from the entire country by 2011. Previous drafts, endorsed by the Bush administration, had a more flexible timeline. The Iraqis only supported hard deadlines for phased withdrawal.

All US forces in Iraq before that date will be under the authority of the Iraqi government;
US forces are to hand over their bases to Iraq during the course of 2009; and,
US forces lose the authority to raid Iraqi homes without an order from an Iraqi judge and permission of the government.

The agreement stipulated that cross border attacks from Iraq against their neighbors were strictly forbidden. This section of the agreement is, in large part, a product of the diplomatic talks between Iran, Iraq and Syria. Iran's judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi said, "“The Iraqi government has done very well regarding this. We hope the outcome of the deal will be in favor of Islam and Iraqi sovereignty."
The pact is said to grant Iraqi judicial authorities limited ability to try US military contractors and troops for major crimes committed off-duty or off-base; and, only if a joint US-Iraqi committee agrees. The Bush Administration was seeking full immunity from Iraqi law for Pentagon contractors and US troops.

Support of the SOFA in Iraq is mixed and generally falls along political and regional lines. In the oil rich north, Kurdish politicians support the agreement. Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Massoud Barzani said, "The alternatives... would be disturbing...It would mean either the continuation of the current situation when an American officer has the power to arrest all ministers, or the US would leave Iraq and give up its commitment to our country."

Shia cleric Moqtada al Sadr brought thousands of supporters onto the streets of Baghdad days before it passed in protest of the agreement. They have peacefully protested regularly since then.

Peace Action supports a complete withdrawal of US troops accompanied by a diplomatic surge and regional cooperation. These points are outlined in our No Soldier Left Behind Campaign. You can endorse it with your signature online, here.

This news brings into question what the incoming President will do with his campaign promises. The day the agreement was signed the Obama transition website remained unchanged.

"Military experts believe we can safely redeploy combat brigades from Iraq at a pace of 1 to 2 brigades a month -- which would remove all of them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 -- more than 7 years after the war began."

President-elect Obama also called for residual forces to remain in Iraq after the initial withdrawal date, an aspect of the Obama plan which will be void if the SOFA agreement is passed. This is some good news. Any residual forces in Iraq would only perpetuate the problem. Would these residual forces be the same corporate militia contracted by the Pentagon? Would these non-combat forces have to maintain bases? It is likely they would call in air strikes if they were in trouble, which always results in more civilian casualties. Any continued US presence in Iraq is antagonistic and harmful to a prosperous Iraqi future.

We cannot let President-elect Obama assume the SOFA has ended the war for him. It will be up to our movement to hold him to his promises and make sure that US troops are out of Iraq, completely, in 16 months, if not sooner.