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According to media reports, the US government plans to reach a new long-term military agreement with the Iraqi government, which has led to uproar well before it is planned to be signed in July. The main point of contention of the draft is that the Bush administration demands the right to attack any nation from Iraq, which represents a threat to international stability. In plain text: The USA wants carte blanche to launch an attack on Iran. This demand has met intense criticism - above all from Iraq’s religious leaders but also from its politicians. However, the agreement also raises further debatable points.
 No Sovereignty for Iraq
After the United Nations mandate expires at the end of the year, the USA wants control of the ministries of defense, national security, and homeland security for a further ten years. But its demands do not stop there. Several military bases should permanently remain under the American flag. The agreement between the USA and the Iraqi government is to be the final great pitch of George Walker Bush before he steps down from office and is intended to secure the influence of the American military in Iraq in the long term. Since the the mandate of international peacekeeping troops expires this year and is also not being extended by the Iraqis, the US government has had to find another way to secure its control. No doubt, Bush and his troops would have wished for slightly less resistance. After five years of war and civil war, the independence and sovereignty of Iraq should by now be restored. Yet Iraq represents a means for the USA to secure its military strength in the Middle East indefinitely. That the USA wants a written attest of its right to wage wars on Iraqi soil is going a tick to far, even for the puppet cabinet of Iraq. In its attempt to push through the accord, the US government has indeed underestimated Shiite influence in Iraq.
 Crude Oil and Israel
 The request of the USA for empowerment to launch a war from Iraqi soil is tantamount to (in)directly threatening Iran. Quite some time ago, the Iranian sermonizer and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fell from international favor due to his warmongering tirades against Israel and his support of a nuclear weapons program. Only last Tuesday, he used the FAO summit to once again launch a sweeping attack on western nations and Israel. At the convention in Rome, which was actually held to find ways to assist poor countries, Ahmadinejad used a press conference to repeatedly rant about western arrogance and the destruction of Israel. Without knowing it, the Iranian president is playing right into the hands of the current US administration. Bush and co. would be only too glad to march into Iran because the oil fields in the land of the Ayatollahs are much larger than those in Iraq.
In addition to oil, the protection of Israel is naturally a major issue. The threats of the Iranian president should not to be taken lightly. Syria also supports the statements made by Ahmadinejad; after all, at the end of 2006, the two states joined together as the “the united front against arrogance and dominance”. So the American request for a military carte blanche in Iraq certainly also has strategic reasons. Yet it is doubtful that Iraq will accept the draft in its current form. Ali al-Dabbagh, spokesperson of the Iraq government announced to the TV channel al-Arabija that if the agreement infringes Iraqi sovereignty, no pact will be signed. Iraq’s stance is totally comprehensible. A land that has been shaken by terror and war for five years longs to find peace and gain independence for the West. With the election of the next US president, be it McCain or Obama, an agreement of this nature will no longer be valid. Nevertheless, for the Bush administration, the draft incarnates the wish for full control of the Middle East and is a recurrent theme throughout the term of office of George W. Bush. Many different reasons for this have been suggested to the worldwide public; probably as many reasons as those that actually exist. But the shortsighted policy that has steadily destabilized the entire region is a legacy that Bush leaves his successor.
 Autor: Torsten Drewes
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