I guess that the economic situation and the presidential election have taken all of the pages and hours allotted by our media for serious news. How else to explain the relative silence by the media about the status of forces agreement that is being reviewed by the Iraqi and U.S. governments?
The agreement calls for our forces to be moved out of Iraqi cities by the summer of 2009 and for us to withdraw from Iraq to a very large degree by the end of 2010. One sticking point in the negotiations has been the question of who has control over prosecuting U.S. soldiers who commit crimes. A more practical sticking point is what will happen to 100,000 Sunnis who were members of the Awakening Councils. The government is taking a long time even planning to integrate them into their military.
The agreement still has to be approved by the Iraqi Parliament; our Congress does not have to approve it.
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Tens of thousands of Sadr's followers marched through Baghdad today in protest at the Iraqi government's stance on this issue. Sadr wants the US out of Iraq a lot sooner than 2011.
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