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Iraq could prosecute U.S. troops under pact

By Qassim Abdul-Zahra - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Oct 15, 2008 12:51:43 EDT

BAGHDAD — Iraq would have the first crack at prosecuting American troops and Pentagon contractors accused of major, premeditated crimes committed outside U.S. bases and when they were off duty under a draft security pact governing military operations in the country, Iraqi officials said Wednesday.

The draft also calls for U.S. troops to leave Iraqi cities by the end of June and withdraw from Iraq entirely by Dec. 31, 2011, unless the Baghdad government asks them to stay. The draft must be ratified by the Iraqi parliament before the current U.N. mandate expires at the end of this year.

But the most contentious portion of the agreement is a compromise formula over who has the right to prosecute American troops and contractors for crimes allegedly committed on Iraqi soil.

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We have pretty much the same agreement with every country our troops are stationed, it's called SOFA (Status Of Forces Agreement). My problem is having a U.S. citizen tried under religious law, which is much harsher.

Actually, the usual purpose of a SOFA is to establish in which cases we can try our own servicemen for actions committed on foreign soil. Without a SOFA, the default is that the country they are in has all jurisdiction.

That said, this is f***ing retarded. When you're the big kid on the block that has come in to make things better, depose a despot, etc, you do not turn around and give that country's legal system jurisdiction over your own people. What in all the seven hells is there to even hint that our men and women would EVER get a fair shake in an Iraqi court? Yes, I concede that it's possible most of the Iraqi legal system would attain impartiality, but only a lunatic or an optimist (some overlap) would think they always would.

Besides, it's not like they're on liberty in some foreign country, they are there under orders and on duty, which, last time I checked, meant that they were bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the Constitution, a few other American documents, and that's IT.

It sounds like a reasonable compromise to me. It would only give the Iraqi's the right to try Americans if they were both off base and not conducting authorized missions, how likely is that to ever happen if we are still fighting an insurgency.

It will give the Iraqi's the ability to show their people that they are a real government that can actually bargain and get concessions from other goverments and it won't affect our actual conduct one bit. Win/Win.

If in a couple of years we are there in a non-combat roll and guys are actually getting liberty and so forth, then it would affect them, but that is the same as any other place US troops are stationed.