Las Vegas Sun

June 4, 2012

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SUN EDITORIAL:

Timetable’s bad timing

Lame duck Bush should not be seeking long-term security agreement with Iraq

Monday, Oct. 20, 2008 | 2:07 a.m.

Bush administration diplomats are frantically trying to forge an agreement that would allow U.S. forces to legally remain in Iraq for at least another three years. The agreement, now being drafted, is creating friction in the Iraqi government and skepticism in the U.S. Congress.

This issue dates to a U.N. Security Council mandate established after the Iraq war began in 2003. It provided legal cover for U.S. and multinational forces to conduct post-invasion operations in Iraq. The mandate has been kept current through renewals sought by the United States and the new Iraq government, and which were granted by the Security Council.

In December, however, acting on another request from the two countries, the Security Council extended the mandate “for the last time,” meaning it expires this year.

Although the Bush administration has argued that it can deploy American military forces anywhere it wants with or without a U.N. mandate, it has been hedging that position by seeking a security agreement with Iraq that would authorize the continued presence there of U.S. forces.

This year, though, while working on a law that would give rise to provincial elections, Iraq’s leaders realized the law would suddenly mean that national sentiment had to be taken into consideration when they dealt with the Bush administration.

That prompted them to declare that any agreement would have to contain a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces. The draft agreement the Bush administration is now asking Congress to approve states that U.S. forces will leave by Dec. 31, 2011, even though Bush has spent years reviling Democrats who dared call for a timetable.

Iraq’s leaders are far from approving the agreement, and many members of Congress are skeptical because, as written, it would give Iraq’s courts jurisdiction over U.S. troops and contractors who committed crimes while off-base and off-duty.

In our view, the lame duck Bush should not even be trying to negotiate a long-term agreement with Iraq. That should be the next president’s job. A bare-bones, short-term agreement would be far more appropriate.

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