Ending impunity in Iraq?

The Iraqi Prime Minister has responded to the latest incidents of violence against civilians by US soldiers by calling for their legal immunity to be reviewed. That will make him popular with the US...

The impunity deal (or "Status of Forces Agreement" (SOFA)) was signed by US Proconsul Paul Bremer on his last day as head of the Coalition provisional Authority. He had no democratic mandate to do it (any more than he had to try and implement neo-liberal reforms to Iraq's economy), and the new Iraqi government would be perfectly within its rights to tear it up and start dragging US soldiers who rape and murder civilians into court. But the chances of that happening when the Iraqi government is located ina US-guarded compound and effectively under the guns of US soldiers is probably fairly remote...