Out-Bushing Bush on Iraq

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Saturday June 07, 2008 · 5:41 PM PDT

2008/06/07 · 17:41

Everyone here is by now aware of Bush's recent overture to finalize a 'Status of Forces' agreement with the Iraqi puppet parliament, and I believe I know a way for Obama to effectively stop this in its tracks....

it involves using the threat of a trick from Bush's own playbook...

The 'status of forces' agreement that Bush has proposed to the Iraqi's is, as we all know here, nothing more than a permanent occupation of the country for the foreseeable future, with our troops stationed in the "enduring bases" that have been constructed in our time there so far.

Bush's administration has called it merely an 'update of the status quo', and as such it of course wouldn't require Senate ratification. I think it would be an incredibly bold and effective move for Obama to come out now, before this thing gets through the Iraqi parliament, and state the following:

As President of the United States, my first job will be to protect and preserve the great document that is the United States Constitution. We have suffered several constitutional crises under the current administration, and I fully intend to return a reverence for Constitutional Governance to the office. President Bush is currently attempting to bypass the congressional authority over the ratification of foreign treaties in order to make permanent an unwanted occupation of the country of Iraq. Unwanted by Iraqis and unwanted by a majority of Americans. Therefore I will, on my first day of office, unsign any 'Status of Forces' agreement for Iraq that includes any demand for the continued presence of American forces in the country of Iraq. Any such agreement is a de facto treaty, and as such must be submitted to the United States Congress for ratification.

Although I don't agree with the actual use of such actions, which were more or less invented by the Bush administration, I think that the threat of such actions could be an invaluable tool in making this whole end run around senate ratification a moot issue.

I have a feeling old W would choke on a pretzel when he heard that one!

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