Wednesday, April 21, 2004

So W insists that we're going to turn over "sovereignty" in Iraq on June 30 no matter what. Am I alone in asking what, exactly, that means?

There will undoubtedly be many US troops on the ground there. Surely they will be under a US general. So if a civil disturbance starts, who will make the call on whether the US military intervenes? Will it be the "sovereign" Iraqi government? What if the Iraqi government, as sovereign, tells us to leave? What if the Kurds revolt and the Iraqi government orders us to go in and shoot them? What if Turkey then attacks? Will the sovereign Iraqi government order us to preserve Iraq's territorial integrity by shooting the Turks? (The threat of a Kurdish revolt followed by a Turkish/Iranian invasion has long been my single biggest fear about governing Iraq. I'm happy that it hasn't happened. Yet.)

Is the press going to ask these questions? Has the administration even thought about it?

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