by hilzoy
President Bush, June 28, 2004:
“Earlier today, 15 months after the liberation of Iraq, and two days ahead of schedule, the world witnessed the arrival of a free and sovereign Iraqi government. Iraqi officials informed us that they are ready to assume power, and Prime Minister Allawi believes that making this transition now is best for his country. After decades of brutal rule by a terror regime, the Iraqi people have their country back.”
“Sovereignty is the exclusive right to complete political (e.g. legislative, judicial, and/or executive) authority over an area of governance, people, or oneself.”
New York Times, September 2, 2007:
“Mr. Bush and his commanders weighed whether to reward the Sunnis with early provincial elections, restoring a degree of political power to them. But calling elections is no longer within the power of the United States, and the Shiite-dominated national government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has long opposed empowering the Sunnis.
They also discussed ways to pressure Mr. Maliki’s government to provide millions of dollars in Iraqi funds — much of it oil money — to reconstruction of Anbar’s schools and health care centers and the reopening of state-run factories.
“This is all about finding ways to circumvent Maliki,” said one senior official who is involved in preparing Mr. Bush’s presentation of a new strategy, which will probably come in an address to the country after General Petraeus and the American ambassador to Iraq, Ryan C. Crocker, have presented their report to Congress starting on Sept. 10. “We can’t go to the Hill again and say Maliki will perform if we just give him the space. He won’t. So you find other means to accomplish the goal.”
But circumventing a central government that the United States itself set up is unlikely to prove easy.”
They don’t even bother to pretend.
But don’t worry, if we are asked to leave, we’ll leave, according to Mr. Bush. Of course, also according to Mr. Bush, that means we’ll give up Iraq to the terrorists, empower Iran, lead to a wider regional war and even greater danger to the USA. One wonders why Mr. Bush would leave such a catastrophic decision in the hands of the sovereign gov’t or Iraq.
In my international relations courses when I was in school (all of last year) we always used this definition of sovereignty. “The ability for one group (a government) to monopolize the use violence within their borders.” With this definition the issue of how much sovereignty the United States grants to the Iraqi government it is all a moot point because no one, ourselves included, is capable of exercising it.