"The president [George W. Bush] is strongly motivated
to string out the [Iraq] war until he leaves office,
in order to avoid taking responsibility for the defeat
he has caused and persisted in making greater each
year for more than three years."

General William Odom, former head of the National
Security Agency (NSA) under President Ronald Reagan
"In beloved Iraq, blood is flowing between brothers,
in the shadow of an illegitimate foreign occupation,
and abhorrent sectarianism threatens a civil war."

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, March 29, 2007
“After [this] war [against Iraq] has ended, the United
States will have to rebuild much more than the country
of Iraq. We will have to rebuild America's image
around the globe.”

Sen. Robert Byrd, (D-W.Va), March 19, 2003
***
The Iraqi Parliament is on record as being against [the
US-led military occupation of their country.
->http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/51624/] Moreover,
most Iraqis resent
Americans occupying their country and the Bush-Cheney
administration's requests to do it forever by
maintaining nearly 60 military bases in their country.
The Bush-Cheney administration has even threatened
the puppet Iraqi government to withhold some $50
billion of Iraq's money held as reserves at the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, if the Iraqi
government does not sign what is also called a
"strategic alliance" agreement to prolong U.S.
occupation indefinitely and turn Iraq into a permanent
American colony.
Indeed, after the illegal military invasion of Iraq in
March 2003, the United Nations was forced to extend [a
mandate of occupation to the United States.
->http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/07/AR2005110701530_pf.html]
Thus, in June 2004, the U.N. Security Council adopted
Resolution 1546 that recognized the de facto
occupation of Iraq by American-led military forces and
kept Iraq subject to the Chapter VII of the U.N.
Charter, which authorizes the use of force in Iraq.
The mandate was supposed to be terminated at the end
of 2005, but was extended. It is that U.N. mandate
authorizing an American presence in Iraq that finally
expires on December 31 of this year. After that date,
there will be no legal basis for U.S. military forces
to be on Iraqi soil and the Iraqi government would
regain its entire authority.
That's what the Bush-Cheney administration wants to
avoid by pressing the Iraqis to sign [a so-called
long-term “security
agreement”,->http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19698.htm]
which would not require approval by the U.S. Congress
(because it would not be a treaty, although this is
playing with words in order to escape the scrutiny of
U.S. lawmakers), and which would keep real Iraqi
authority to a nominal level and concentrate most of
political power in American hands. In other words, the
Bush-Cheney administration wants a puppet government
in Baghdad in perpetuity. We may add that this is
precisely what [Republican presidential Candidate
McCain
->http://www.TheNewAmericanEmpire.com/tremblay=1088]
also wants.
In the future, as now, Americans in Iraq (American
troops, contractors and private security guards) would
have full legal immunity for their actions, even when
they steal, rape, kidnap, torture, or murder Iraqis,
and could arrest Iraqis and put them in American-run
jails. Moreover, the American occupiers would have key
Iraqi departments such as Defense, Interior and
National Security ministries, as well as armament
contracts, under their supervision for ten years,
would keep control of Iraqi airspace, would maintain
permanent military bases in the country and would
retain the right to strike, from within Iraqi
territory, any country (read Iran and Syria) they
consider to be a threat to their security or contrary
to U.S. or Iraqi interests. Some sovereignty and some
independence indeed! [Even the weak Nouri al-Maliki
government
->http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=144275]
thinks it's too much, while [Shia Grand Ayatollah
al-Sistani
->http://www.upi.com/Emerging_Threats/2008/06/05/Sistani_speaks_out_on_US-Iraqi_compact/UPI-16731212718553/]
is tinkering with the idea of issuing a religious
fatwa against the Bush-Cheney's so-called proposed
agreement, a move that would likely kill it.
Let's keep in mind that the Bush-Cheney's military
occupation of Iraq is doubly illegitimate, besides
having been illegal from day one according to
international law. First, a solid majority of
Americans want American soldiers out of Iraq.
Second, a vast majority of Iraqis
also want American soldiers out of their country. The
irony is that the Bush-Cheney regime pretends to be in
Iraq for the sake of "democracy", while they trample
on people's demands both in Iraq and in the United
States. [Some "democracy" indeed. How about fascism and
imperialism!
->http://www.thenewamericanempire.com/tremblay=1069.htm]
When both the president of Iraq
and the King of Saudi Arabia
say that [the ongoing U.S. military occupation of Iraq
is 'illegitimate', and when Turkey
->http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070412/wl_mideast_afp/turkeyiraqunrestkurds]
has acted on its threats to bomb and invade Northern
Iraq, it becomes obvious that the entire Middle East
is now turning against the U.S. Bush-Cheney regime and
its colonial adventure in that part of the world. The
Bush-Cheney regime likes to delude itself and to play
on words when it pretends that Iraq is not under [an
"illegitimate foreign occupation"
->http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,262313,00.html]
but that U.S. troops are in that far away country at
Iraq's invitation (sic!), citing the after-the-fact
U.N. mandate. This is an example of fuzzy and circular
thinking. When you don't think straight, you don't act
straight. And, on this score, the Bush-Cheney
administration is the most crooked you can find.
All that remains to see is whether the Bush-Cheney
administration will succeed on three fronts, that is
to say,
1- force its puppet government in Baghdad to
sign a long-term agreement of dependence toward the
United States,
2- bypass Congress and the U.S.
Constitution in adopting what would clearly be an
international treaty, and finally,
3- tie up the hands
of the next president and prevent him from withdrawing
U.S. forces from Iraq. When you think of it, this is a
cynical game of brinksmanship, always on the edge of
legality, morality and decency.