Not Bloody Likely

via Matt Yglesias, I see that the Iraqi PM is already getting angry about the American GI's blanket immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law. The PM is calling for a review of the immunity that was forced on Iraq as a condition of getting sovereignty back from the US.

The Iraqis will not get a review of the immunity. Period. Full stop. Countries like Italy, Germany, Japan, and South Korea all have status of forces agreements (SOFAs) and have had to endure the indignity of US criminals evading justice because they happen to be in the uniform of an American soldier. If anything, the case for an Iraqi SOFA is stronger, given the Islamic penchant for laws that Americans would find intolerable.

Given that we can assume the SOFA-like arrangement with Iraq will remain unchanged, the killings by US soldiers, and therefore the grievances of the Iraqis, will remain. Obviously, this is a sub-optimal solution. And this is even with American forces more-or-less confined to their bases. The idea of sending American troops out in to the country to try and fight the insurgency is just as likely to increase the killing of innocents. One of the many, many, many reasons the war was a bad idea in the first place.