The Details: Off the Hook Again

One of the main sticking points for the U.S. security agreement in Iraq was how to handle situations involving American troops that are suspected in criminal activity. This is a sad reality in any occupation be it America or not. I know as Americans we think our military doesn't commit war crimes and that our military always follows moral guidelines in warfare. The truth is no country does, and we certainly haven't in Iraq. War will be war and we have always insisted as a nation, and as a government that our troops are not bound by anything less than UN mandates (sometimes) and certainly not local laws and customs. All that changes with SOFA.

Under the new agreement American troops could very well face Iraqi criminal courts in cases of war crimes and other crimes committed against Iraqi civilians. The agreement calls for a joint U.S.-Iraqi committee to review the charges and decide who has jurisdiction in the matter of alleged U.S. troop crimes. The joint committee would have the option of granting jurisdiction to U.S. military tribunals or to Iraqi criminal courts. A huge change in policy for the United States and the Bush administration to say the least.

I write about this not because I disagree with it because I believe if we are truly there not as "occupiers" but as liberators then of course we should be bound by Iraqi criminal law. I write about it because I know full well that if Barack Obama had allowed such an agreement to strip our military personnel from long held policy beliefs that we are not bound by local laws then Fox News and the right wing would paint him as not supporting the troops, and without a doubt as an unpatriotic war criminal himself. There is no doubt about this. It's not even a matter of refute that Fox and the Fantasy World pundits would do this. George Bush gets no such scrutiny.

The most unpopular president in two generations allows our troops to be tried as war criminals in foreign courts and we have to dig to find the details. This would not be the case for Obama. George Bush turns over the very troops he's sent into war to foreign courts to possibly be tried as war criminals and his remaining 21% of support is silent and so is the MSM. Nice work Mr. Bush and excellent coverage by the MSM. Y'all deserve some sort of freedom medal for your unprecedented coverage- or lack thereof.

I'd really like to see this liberal media Fox News and the drug-addicted Rush Limbaugh is always complaining about.