"...sovereignty means just that; it's sovereign. You're a -- you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity."
-- G.W. Bush
Thank you, George, for that misundermangling. Now, just so we are clear on what it really means:
Complete independence and self-government. – American Heritage Dictionary.
Freedom from external control. -- Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law.
By those definitions, any claim that Iraq is a sovereign state is patently a lie. Iraq is NOT a sovereign state; thus, any claims that "success" in Iraq depends upon achievement of political goals, a coalition government or the Iraqis standing up so that we can stand down are also LIES.
There is no Iraqi government, there is no coalition government, there is, in fact, no Iraqi State or Nation because there is no sovereignty. There is only an occupation...
From ABC News:
Iraq said on Monday no action would be taken against U.S. private security firm Blackwater over a shooting in which 11 people were killed until after a joint investigation with U.S. officials.
Now let us imagine a "sovereign" nation taking no action against a band of mercenary "security" companies that operate within that country’s own borders but outside of that country’s laws. Imagine that there was a video that showed that employees from one such company opened fire without provocation, killing and injuring scores of that "sovereign" county’s citizens.
Imagine that a private security firm from, oh say, Iraq, had open fire on several citizens of North Carolina, and after meeting with members of the Iraqi Government, G.W. suddenly backed off of what had been previous claims of outrage and calls for the removal of the security firm from the U.S. and instead announced the following:
The future of Blackwater is linked to the joint US and Iraqi investigation.
What the friggin h*ll, you might well ask? Why do we need a joint investigation with their government to determine if our laws were broken?
Exactly. The Iraq government has been told to back down on Blackwater and they have done what they were told. Iraq is NOT sovereign, yet the BushCo "plan" for Iraq relies on just that.
But within days of Maliki's call, and the interior ministry's insistence that its licence be suspended, Blackwater was back operating on the streets of Baghdad, and none of its staff had been detained or deported.
--snip—
The government appears to have adopted a more conciliatory tone in recent statements, suggesting that Baghdad is finding it difficult to impose its authority on the security companies which are an integral part of the American war effort in Iraq.
I.E., the Iraqi government can’t impose its authority because it has NONE.
Thus, we have the heart of the Bush policy failure in Iraq – the policy depends upon a sovereign and stable government in Iraq; the policy steadfastly refuses to allow sovereignty for the Iraqi "government".
In G.W.’s own words:
The rise of a free and self-governing Iraq will deny terrorists a base of operation, discredit their narrow ideology, and give momentum to reformers across the region. This will be a decisive blow to terrorism at the heart of its power, and a victory for the security of America and the civilized world.
--snip—
Our coalition has a clear goal, understood by all -- to see the Iraqi people in charge of Iraq for the first time in generations. America's task in Iraq is not only to defeat an enemy, it is to give strength to a friend - a free, representative government that serves its people and fights on their behalf. And the sooner this goal is achieved, the sooner our job will be done.
(Emphasis added).
That was May 2004. Yet today:
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki walked a fine line Sunday: confronting his American backers over what he sees as violations of Iraq's sovereignty while stressing that his relations are rock solid with the country on whose support he still relies.
There is no sovereignty. There is no Iraq. There is no war in Iraq.
There is only endless occupation.