How To Lose Iraq.(World View)(status of forces agreement)

Grants of immunity have a long and unpleasant history in the Middle East, having caused serious crises.

No word better sums up the dangers the United States faces in Iraq today than a four-letter acronym you've probably never heard of: SOFA. Several decades ago, SOFA helped America lose Iran. Now it has become the biggest sticking point between Washington and Baghdad.

SOFA stands for Status of Forces Agreement, a type of compact that governs the treatment of U.S. personnel abroad. With U.S. troops scattered around the globe, these agreements are critically important, and there are some 90 of them in force, each tailored to the special requirements of the host nation. The Bush administration now wants to add Iraq to this list, in order to help formalize the long-term U.S. security presence there.

That doesn't sound problematic, but there's a catch. Most SOFAs grant U.S. personnel immunity from prosecution by the host country. In this case, according to leaked accounts from Iraqi leaders, Washington is demanding even more. The proposed deal would guarantee U.S. rights to more than 50 military bases, give Americans the right to detain terror suspects without prior Iraqi approval, ensure U.S. control of Iraqi airspace and extend legal immunity to civilian contractors. The Pentagon says it's all necessary for the security of Iraqis and U.S. personnel. The government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said the deal "deeply affects Iraqi sovereignty, and this we can never accept."

It turns out that immunity grants have long been controversial and have an unpleasant history in the Middle East, where they've generated serious crisis in Turkey, Egypt and especially Iran.

Starting back in the 16th century, Ottoman sultans, to promote trade and gain European good will, began granting foreign merchants immunity from Turkish laws. But this irked locals. Then, in 1905, Sultan Abdul Hamid was targeted in a failed bomb (27 bystanders were killed). Edward Joris, a Belgian subject, was arrested and condemned to death by a Turkish court for alleged complicity. But Brussels demanded his release, and two years later, Joris walked free. Turkish reformers seized on the controversy to demand the abolition of extraterritorial rights, which they formally achieved in 1923 under President Kemal Ataturk of the fledgling Turkish republic.

A related dispute struck Egypt around the same time as the Joris affair. In 1906, seven British officers hunting in the village of Dinshawai bagged a flock of pigeons that were actually tame. Villagers protested, a melee erupted, and a Captain Bull collapsed and died from heat stroke, and Bull's ...