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George Bush, Dick Cheney and their advisors may want to look up the unpopular Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of the last century between Great Britain and the nominally independent Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq, which gave Great Britain military and political privileges in Iraq that are similar to what the US is seeking today, including the right to build unlimited military bases and complete freedom of movement of British troops in Iraqi territories and airspace.

They may also want to look up how that treaty ended, as well as the fate of the Iraqi prime minister responsible for signing the treaty (and later the Baghdad Pact). The PM, who was incidentally named Nuri al-Sa'id, tried to escape Baghdad in a woman's dress on 14 July, 1958--when the Iraqi army led by Colonel Abdul Karim Qassim staged a coup against the Hashemite monarchy--but he was captured, shot, tied with ropes, dragged on the streets, mutilated beyond recognition by Iraqis who hit the corpse with slippers, and then hung from a building in central Baghdad and later burned.

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Originally posted by heckofajobBrownie:
Funny to see all of the potential VP candidates out there pouncing on this McCain remark with all the gusto they can summon.

"See what an asset I'll be on the campaign trail??"

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Iraq PM: security deal talks at dead end

Fri Jun 13, 7:51 AM ET

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says talks with the United States on a longterm security agreement have reached a "dead end." Al-Maliki says the talks slumped because each side refused the other's demands.

He says the initial framework agreed upon was to have been an accord "between two completely sovereign states." But he says the U.S. proposals "do not take into consideration Iraq's sovereignty."

The prime minister said Friday "this is not acceptable." The American demands "violate Iraqi sovereignty. At the end, we reached a dead end."

Washington and Baghdad have been negotiating behind closed doors a deal that would give U.S. troops legal grounds for an extended stay in Iraq after a United Nations mandate expires Dec. 31.