"The Bush administration is also negotiating a so-called strategic framework agreement with Baghdad, though details of this accord remain unclear. Iraq experts disagree on what is likely to be included in the framework, and administration officials have been vague. The Congressional Research Service's Katzman says he believes the agreement may incorporate some of the more contentious security proposals, such as authorization for the use of force, contractor immunity, and perhaps approval for the United States to continue detaining prisoners. Patrick Cockburn, the Independent newspaper's veteran Iraq correspondent, writes that the agreement being pushed by the United States would give Americans "long-term use of more than fifty bases in Iraq," an assertion Ambassador Crocker calls "flatly untrue." The framework, if signed, would also give U.S. troops "a free hand to carry out arrests and conduct military activities in Iraq without consulting the Baghdad government," Cockburn reports. Yale's Hathaway, meanwhile, says public statements by administration officials have led her to believe contentious security details will remain part of the negotiated SOFA. The strategic framework "basically appears to be everything else" outlined in the November 2007 declaration of principles, she says." CFR Paper
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If rumors are correct, the approaching SOFA and "strategic framework agreement" are documents which essentially would establish an American protectorate (muhamia) over Iraq for an indeterminate period of time. The language of the agreements would be "gussied up" to look post-colonial but as the old American "saw" goes, lipstick on a pig does not change the nature of the pig.
As in the "good old days," there are ethnic and religious minorities conveniently to hand who will support the agreements for their own reasons. The Kurds want American protection to continue and the majority of Sunni Arabs have come to understand that at least for a time, the Americans are preferable to Shia Arab rule limited only by the extent of their real coercive power.
The CFR article suggests that the US has already created a similar regime in Afghanistan. I do not know about that. Someone will comment on that thought I am sure.
Can such agreements be made by executive agreement without the consent of the senate? This is a lawyer's question. Please comment. pl
http://www.cfr.org/publication/16448/us_security_agreements_and_iraq.html?breadcrumb=%2F
