Unjust Loophole/smart Money/muzzling The Military

摘要

To the bushrnAdministration forrnbeing unable to secure total immunity for U.S. troops in Iraq while drafting a new Status of Forces Agreement with Baghdad. There's no doubt that the U.S. government strongly prefers to retain immunity for its troops and contractors as it struggles to craft a new deal before Dec. 31, when a U.N. mandate authorizing U.S. troop presence in Iraq expires. But American troops will be tragic victims of the White House's lame duck status if, as seems likely, the U.S. is forced into a compromise on this critical point. Though the compromise would limit Iraqi jurisdiction over troops and contractors to those who commit "major and premeditated murders," this loophole is a ticking time-bomb. No service member -and for that matter, no U.S. contractor hired by the government - who is deployed in wartime should be subject to the criminal courts of the country in which he was sent to fight and serve. The U.S. military has its own justice system to punish criminal behavior by its troops. There can be no other justice.