Kicked Out

The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) approved by the Iraqi parliament on Thursday has been reported but shockingly provoked barely any reaction here in the US. Talking heads are still speculating about Obama's intentions to withdraw from Iraq and how, or even if, they will be realized.

The fact is, the Iraqis have definitively kicked us out! According to SOFA, US combat forces must withdraw from urban areas in six months. All US forces must withdraw from the country by the end of 2011--three years from now.

(Is the ho-hum attitude because we as Americans still retain some arrogant sense that "we" can sign this now and renege as needed?)

Signing SOFA is one of Bush's last acts, after strenuously objecting to timetables for years. George W is now so irrelevant that the final and humiliating blow to his ill-conceived and disastrously executed invasion and occupation is a whimper and a sigh.