You would be naive to think that this means anything. They just want to see what Obama will do. And then they'll go for the agreement they want. What they want probably won't work, but at least they'll get the chance to chose for themselves.

Rather than SOFA, I prefer what The Editors call it, the Agreement on Withdrawal of Forces, or AIRWOLF.

So now the mystery is this. If Sunni, Shia and Kurds all agree, they must have a certain level of confidence that they have political reconciliation. So why not just leave now? In fact, why doesn't Bush just declare victory and take a bow? Why does the media focus on restrictions to attack other countries from Iraq and the right of Iraq to try contractors and soldiers, when it even mentions this agreement? Forget oil. What is the public argument for staying?

boy, working on thanksgiving day. i didn't know the iraqi parliament was so dedicated!

There are still at least parts of this agreement which reach the level of "treaty." It needs to be voted upon in our Congress to be legal. The President, alone, has no right to commit troops or money without the approval of the Senate and the House. In particular, check out Article 27 (Deterrance Security Dangers) of the agreement. This commits the U.S. to protect Iraq against FUTURE dangers. That is a TREATY!

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/56116.html

IRAQI PARLIAMENT APPROVES SOFA.... still hung up on drapes.
Happy Thanksgiving.

does the agreement include a giant farewell parade down Bush Boulevard in downtown Baghdad with honorary parade marshals mccane, LIEberman, and Graham?

they actually have giant, helium-filled balloons of bush, mcsame, holy joe, and huckleberry.

I've just been sitting around waiting for something to happen.,

i thought bush already was a helium-filled balloon.

Actually, this is a 6-month plan. As of June, the U.S. military is constrained to its bases, which is a tacit end of the road. The rest of the time is just for withdrawal.

A fat, floating sofa, suspended in the midst of a great emptiness.

Quite an attractive sofa.

This sofa could be commercial...with a few margaritas in the right company.

but I digress...

Danp: They didn't agree. Steve doesn't look hard enough at the number of Sunni bloc MPs who "agreed to disagree" by abstaining.

ImpeachCheney is right, too. BUT, B.O. will be no more desirous of submitting this baby to Senate review than Georgie-Porgie has been. And, the Senate probably doesn't want its advice sought, i9f that means taking responsibility.

I really thought al Sadr was going to do more to block this agreement from going through. Maybe he has other plans, oraybe it's a measure of his reduced clout in the country - we'll see.

In any case, the most immediate need has been satisfied by the agreement: to buy some time. American forces will not be truly out until they are all gone, and until that happens, there is a multitude of ways the departure can be delayed beyond the supposed end date. It is plain the Bush administration never intends to get out - that much is clear from the continued rationalizations for staying; if it's violent, America needs to stay to establish security, if it's not violent, Amerca needs to stay to consolidate security gains and progress the political agenda - so it remains to be seen if Obama is serious about discontinuing the American presence. I hope so, but there will be tremendous pressure brought on him to stay.

That should be "or maybe" and not "oraybe" in the above message, of course; I guess I didn't have "insert" selected, and accidentally overwrote. Boy, it doesn't matter how many times I proofread, I always miss something.

I realize the seriousness of this issue, but I just have to point out that the headline reminds me of the classic Onion article, "Supreme Court Overturns Car."

Given Iraq's historic tension with Turkey, I guess there's little chance of an Ottoman being approved to go along with the sofa . . .