We've got a SOFA
The United States and Iraq have signed a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that will govern the presence of American troops in Iraq after the UN Mandate ends on 31 December. Coming to terms was a long and messy process, as befits a country unaccustomed to international diplomacy and rightly prickly about sovereignty issues, working with a country that has troops in harm's way on behalf of securing precisely that sovereignty.
SOFAs, for example, are generally non-public, Executive agreements. The Iraqi prime minister however, concerned over the appearance of secrecy, decided to make it public and have it passed by the Iraqi parliament. The cabinet voted 26-1 to recommend passage, and the vote in parliament is scheduled for 24 November.
With the negotiation and the document largely public, neither side had much room for maneuver. The Iraqis demanded a date for withdrawal, first from the cities and then from the country; no permanent American bases; and a pledge not to use Iraq to attack any other country (i.e., Iran). When JINSA met privately in the fall with a State Department official close to the talks, he said the United States would probably end up giving Iraq more in a SOFA than almost any other country. And that, he said, would be acceptable as long as the United States red line was respected.
The red line, he said, was the Iraqi demand to prosecute purported crimes committed by U.S. troops and civilians, including while on duty. That, according to the official, would be a "complete non-starter." Well, not exactly. The United States has, according to news reports, agreed to lift the immunity of soldiers and civilians if they commit crimes off-duty and off their bases. That stands as a big concern for us - and, we assume, for the American military - as the possibility of political arrests and "show trials" for the benefit of one party or another cannot be discounted at this stage of Iraq's political and judicial development. We will be watching that point closely.
On the whole, however, the agreement is testimony to the determination of the United States to create a new legal framework for supporting the continued development of a stable Iraq with a government operating in the name of its people. Admittedly, there was part of us that wanted to say to them, "How ungracious of you - hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and women sacrificed on behalf of your liberation and political development - whether you asked them to or not. Too many of them came home scarred for life and far too many didn't come home at all. If you're so determined to have us go, we'll just leave. You try to run this thing by yourself and take the consequences."
But that would have been shortsighted. Iraq, involuntarily, became a test bed for the proposition that consensual government can grow in the Muslim Middle East and a test bed for American resolve. Thus far, we and the Iraqis have withstood the war, the Coalition Provisional Authority, the fight for a constitution and elections. We have battled an almost-civil-war and the depredations of people who would kill, maim and die to enforce the lifestyle of al Qaeda and Iran on traditionally secular Iraqis. We and the Iraqis have done the surge and continued reconstruction and seen the return of Arab ambassadors to Baghdad. Now we have overcome Iranian intention to derail the SOFA. And the Iraqi government is still here and we are still there.
Between now and December 2011, Iraq will have setbacks and we will wonder about our investment. But if people across the Middle East are to believe that there is something for them other than a choice between secular repression and religious repression, it will be found in the progress in Iraq - and in the success of the SOFA.
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