S.O.V.E.R.E.I.G.N.I.T.Y.

Iraqi president Jalal Talabani is hardly a vociferous critic of American foreign policy, but even he apparently has to accept the realities that it entails:

"I categorically refuse the use of Iraqi soil to launch a military strike against Syria or any other Arab country," Talabani told the London-based Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat in an interview published Tuesday.

"But at the end of the day my ability to confront the US military is limited and I cannot impose on them my will." (via)

Remember, this is not some former Ba'athist chauvinist cursing the wind. Talabani is, whatever one might think of the process which installed him in the position, the president of Iraq and was appointed to that role six months after the so-called "handover of sovereignty" of June 28, 2004. As such his comments tell us much about the truth behind Anglo-American rhetoric. Not that anybody should be greatly surprised.