I've been digging around trying to find more information on the Status of Forces Agreement currently being negotiated between the US and Iraqi governments, but very few details are available. From McClatchy:

The negotiations are shrouded in secrecy and Iraqi officials said they'd been instructed by American officials not to discuss the details.

Uh-oh. I smell yet another neo-con foreign policy disaster in the making. And then, from Juan Cole, I learn this so-called "security agreement" is being negotiated directly between dubya and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, bypassing both countries legislative bodies:

(On both the Iraqi and American side, this agreement is being characterized as a mere understanding between two executives. It is not being categorized as a treaty and there is no plan to submit it either to the Iraqi parliament or to the US Congress. It seems that the Bush team hopes it will take on the force of law just by virtue of existing and having been signed by the two leaders.)

It looks like our preznit holds the same (lack of) respect for the Iraqi constitution that he does our own. Sigh. Lately I've grown so very weary of this administration's complete contempt for the rule of law that I hardly have the energy to rant about it any more. (I just want it to be over, for dubya and company to be gone.) But this transparent end-run around the two-thirds majority Senate approval required for ratification of treaties really gores my ox, and I don't know why. Compared to some of the other shenanigans they've pulled, this latest be-shitting of our constitution seems pretty tame. This is after all, the administration that has successfully legalized the centuries-old crimes of kidnapping and torture by redefining them as "extraordinary rendition" and "enhanced interrogation techniques."

In fact, now that I think about it, it's the amateurishness of this attempt to force dubya's policies onto the next administration that strikes me most. All the smart rats have left the ship. The administration that once weakened pollution standards with the Clear Skies Initiative and granted logging companies access to federal land with the Healthy Forests Initiative is left with rats just capable enough to pick up a thesaurus, grab the first synonym listed for treaty and pretend it has a different meaning.

Sadly, they will still get away with it. Most of America is too intellectually lazy to pay attention to what their government is doing. Besides, it looks like the latest American Idol contest winner may be dating one of the contestants from a previous show!!! And Brittany is skinny again!!!

Meanwhile, the Iraqi citizenry are paying attention. And they are not happy. All dubya's empty (headed) rhetoric about spreading freedom and democracy in Iraq is about to bite him in the ass. Muqtada al-Sadr is going to wind up as Iraq's Patrick Henry. From CNN:

Some Shiite and Sunni Muslim leaders in Iraq -- able to agree on little else -- are united in their opposition to a prospective long-term security agreement between their country's government and the United States.
Many Iraqis suspect it could lead to the establishment of bases, a long-term presence of American troops, and a weakening of Iraqi government control of foreign troops.

What's the Arabic translation for "Duh!"? Of course it will lead to the establishment of bases and the long-term presence of American troops. The sole purpose of this "agreement" is to provide some degree of legitimacy and permanence to our occupation of Iraq. Although they've taken down their website, the PNAC dream of American hegemonic control of the Middle East is still very much alive. More from Juan Cole:

Unlike the Sadrists, who reject the agreement altogether, al-Hayat says that ISCI simply has problems with some specific provisions. For instance, it objects to US troops being able to arrest Iraqis at will and hold them, and to be able to use deadly force at will without coordinating with the Iraqi government. It also objects to extraterritoriality (immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts) for American troops, civilians and private security guards.

And more from CNN:

Al-Sadr's chief Shiite political rival, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, said only Iraqis should control Iraq.
"From the beginning, we were and we still insist on the importance of not having any resolution that can challenge our national sovereignty," al-Hakim said.
Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a leader in Iraq's largest Sunni Arab bloc, worries a security agreement could compromise Iraqi sovereignty, which he calls a "red line that should not be bypassed."
A U.S. diplomat in Baghdad tried to allay those fears.
"These are bilateral negotiations between two sovereign countries," said U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo. "They are still very much in process. We are determining what will work for us, and the Iraqis are determining what will work for them.
"As with all negotiations, the resulting agreement will have to satisfy the interests of both countries. Our focus is to achieve an agreement that is fully consistent with Iraq's sovereignty."

Can you believe the gall of those Iraqis? Thinking they are a sovereign nation just because dubya has been going around calling them one for a few years? Just to be sure, I looked up sovereign in an on-line dictionary. It still means independent and self-governing, but I'll keep checking it. If dubya gets any of his smart rats back, it could mean US colony quicker than you can say 100-year oil lease.

It's good to be back in Misery. I've been home now for 8 days and the neurons in my forebrain are finally beginning to fire again, waking from the self-protective vegetative state they had slipped into during my extended stay in Oklahoma. I've been self-medicating with fine German hops and I feel confident that I will fully recover, but I can't help wondering how close I came to:



I spent the better part of 4 months in Oklahoma, but not in the wide open cattle country with town names right out of the Louis L'Amour books I read as a youth. No, I was living in a seedy part of Oklahoma City. An area with no sidewalks, but many pedestrians, people who walked in the street out of necessity, because they could not afford a car. Others drove old, smoke-belching heaps with trash bag windows and trunk lids held closed with rope. They drove on potholed, washboard roads and sent their children to failing schools. And yet, when asked about politics, they would invariably parrot the latest right-wing noise-machine talking points about how liberals are ruining this country and more tax cuts are the only solution to our economic woes.

After a while I stopped asking. Prolonged exposure to cognitive dissonance of that magnitude gave rise to a great weariness in me. Soul-sucking fatigue. It's much better now, but I'm not whole yet. I'm still dreaming in beige, the color of despair.