What was Delahunt up to? Posted by Moira Whelan

Delahunt just asked Crocker to convey to the Iraqi government the concerns of Congress about the expiration of the UN mandate. Why would he do that? After all, they can probably get C-Span. I’m checking on this, but I think that based on Crocker’s commitment to do so, the US government must now formally do that in a diplomatic sense, which can be a Fairly Big Deal…but I’ll get back to you on that one.

Delahunt also dug deeper into a question Clinton asked yesterday about the negotiation of presence of US forces and the bilateral agreement between the US and Iraq. Clinton stressed that if the Iraqi parliament had a chance to pass or reject the agreement, then so should the US Congress.

Delahunt took it one better: if the Malaki government decides not to take it to the Iraqi parliament, they will be in violation of the Iraqi Constitution. The agreement, in this case, would be null and void from the Iraqi side, and therefore the US could not agree to it, and it would not be binding to protect our troops, right?

This will prove to be a pretty big point in the months to come.