The US and Iraq: Base-less Strategy

When assured of anonymity, Iraqi officials have been more open than the U.S. negotiators about their expectations. Iraqi descriptions of the non-SOFA discussions, said to cover economic, social, financial, trade, political, military, and environmental matters, suggest that there may well be a series of specialized subject-matter documents rather than the one or two mentioned by U.S. sources. Such an outcome presumably would please the White House which has taken the position that no documents emerging from the negotiations will rise to the level of a treaty and thus require legislative imprimatur.

Permanent Bases Debate

Understandably, the White House has been extremely reticent and defensive about the discussions, perhaps remembering past subterfuge of its own. And while there are no signs of panic – yet – negotiators are quite aware that critical details, leaked to opponents before the final signatures are affixed, potentially could scuttle months of maneuvering by the Bush administration on sensitive topics. Of these, the most politically sensitive issue is whether U.S. bases being built in Iraq should be, or clearly already are, permanent.

Ironically, the basing debate is more of a U.S. domestic controversy that pits Democrats in Congress against Republicans in Congress and the White House than an issue between the United States and Iraq. The current (110th) and previous (109th) Congresses enacted legislation banning the expenditure of funds for the construction of "permanent" bases in Iraq. Each time, Bush signed the legislation into law (PL 109-284, PL 109-364, PL 110-28, PL 110-116, PL 110-181) That he evidently never had any intention of complying (as commander in chief he believes he has virtually unlimited leeway to ignore provisions of law pertaining to the "global war on terror"), Bush included in his signing statement for PL 110-181 a specific reference to the anti-base provision as one that he would interpret for its consistency with his duties as commander in chief.

More
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/dsmith.php?articleid=12763