Who gets final say on U.S. troops after June 30?

[CShine]

The United States is heading into a troubling and unique situation on June 30, when President Bush has promised to cede Iraqi sovereignty to a new interim government, but so far without spelling out who will be in ultimate command of the 135,000 American troops in the country and how those troops and civilian contractors will be shielded from the jurisdiction of Iraqi courts, lawmakers and analysts said.

Signals on both issues have been confusing, adding to anxiety over the approaching deadline and the pressing need to make decisions in the next few weeks.

"This is going to turn out to be a much thornier problem in five weeks than people realize,'' retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, author of a book that analyzes last year's invasion of Iraq, said this week. "We're in uncharted territory.''

The lack of answers also is fueling anxiety in Congress.

"The safety and security of our troops on July 1 is all I'm thinking about. And I have no idea, because it seems the administration has no idea,'' said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek, a House Armed Services Committee member who has been pressing the administration for answers for months.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/05/29/MNGEP6U1Q31.DTL

[SheilaT]

1. Not that I'm privy to anything

other than what I read in the newspapers :) , but we (the U.S.) will retain sovereignty over our troops. We always do. The "handover" on June 30 is simply about who runs the erstwhile civilian government of that country. Our guys and gals will still be there, all 130,000 or so of them continuing to do all the wonderful things they've been doing so far: restoring electricity, building schools, constructing roads, killing, raping, and pillaging.

[acmavm]

2. The 'handover' is more of a 'handjob' than anything else. The bush*

administration has absolutely no intention of relinquishing anything in the way of authority or power to the Iraqis. I am not what you would consider a rocket scientist by any means, but I am capable of linear thought patterns and what I see and what I read and what I hear tell me this is all one big facade to appease the critics of the invasion.

Do you think we'll be spending less money after the handover? Nope, not when you consider all the money we will have to keep pumping into the maintainence of the troops, or the continual payment of Halliburton etc. for their contracts (which are not going to be rescinded by the way). In fact, I cannot for the life of me see where there is going to be any change whatsoever if this fake transfer of power takes place.

As has been said one hundred times before, "New boss, same as the old boss." The only unknown factor is how will the Iraqi people react to this farce.

[Dr Fate]

3. Hell, we dont even know who gets the final say here in the USA...

Is it Cheney? Is it Rove? Is it Bush Sr.? We may never know.