Iraq cabinet approves status of forces agreement

November 16, 7:27 PMProgressive Politics ExaminerJay McDonough

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The Iraqi cabinet voted overwhelmingly today to approve the security agreement between the U.S. and Iraq.  The agreement, long in dispute, will go to the Iraqi Parliament for their consideration.  

All but one of the 28 cabinet ministers who attended the two-and-a-half-hour session voted for the agreement and sent it to Parliament for consideration, a huge relief to the United States, which had been in intense negotiations with the Iraqis for nearly a year.

ThinThe decision of the 37-member cabinet, essentially a microcosm of the Parliament, is expected to be a good indicator of whether the agreement will pass. The assembly has not yet announced the date of its vote, but it is scheduled to go into recess on Nov. 24.

The draft approved Sunday requires coalition forces to withdraw from Iraqi cities and towns by the summer of 2009 and from the country by the end of 2011. An earlier version had language giving some flexibility to that deadline, with both sides discussing timetables and timelines for withdrawal, but the Iraqis managed to have the deadline set in stone, a significant negotiating victory.

“We welcome the cabinet's approval of the agreement today,” said a spokesperson from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. “This is an important and positive step.” (Link)

Spencer Ackerman comments:

The Bush administration intended the SOFA process to entrench the occupation. Instead it gave the Iraqi government the means to end it. And that's the best-possible way for the war to end: with the Iraqi government -- the one we've disingenuously told the world we're in Iraq to support -- showing its political maturation to get us out the day after tomorrow. And out actually means out. The SOFA demands that every last U.S. serviceman is on a plane by December 31, 2011. Obama's plan for a 30,000-troop residual force? Officially overtaken by events. As I say, the impact of this appears not to have sunken in. The Iraqis have forced an end to the war.

Think back to how hard and long the Bush Administration fought to avoid any semblance of timetables for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.  Remember when just a few months ago John McCain, campaigning for the presidency, argued a very long presence in Iraq was something that the U.S. would consider if it was in our national interest?

It appears now the U.S. presence in Iraq or, more specifically the end of that presence, will be decided by the Iraqi government and not ours.  It's how it should be.