Torture's Bad Seeds

Jennifer Loven writes for the Associated Press: "The deeply unpopular prime minister seemed to calculate he had more to gain politically by being hawkish than he risked losing by appearing at the side of the also unpopular Bush. . . .

"Bush was clearly grateful at Brown's announcements. Despite talk early in Brown's tenure about a stiffness between them, the two men traded much warm praise. Bush paid Brown one of his highest compliments. 'He's tough on terror, and I appreciate it -- and so should the people of Great Britain and the world,' he said."

Iraq Watch

Yochi J. Dreazan writes in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required): "Iraq's foreign minister said he was optimistic that Iraq and the U.S. would be able to finalize a long-term security agreement by a July 31 deadline, crediting what he described as new 'flexibility' by the Bush administration.

"Hoshyar Zebari said the U.S. had made concessions such as dropping a demand for immunity for American security contractors and agreeing to create a U.S.-Iraqi operations center that gives Iraqi officials more input into future American military moves there.

"But Mr. Zebari, in an interview, made clear that Washington and Baghdad remain divided over some components of the security deal, which is designed to establish a legal framework for American military operations in Iraq after a United Nations mandate expires at year's end.

"The foreign minister said the biggest points of contention were how many bases the U.S. would be allowed to maintain in Iraq long term, and whether the U.S. military would retain the power to arrest Iraqi civilians and keep them in U.S. detention facilities. . . .

"A senior U.S. official in Washington familiar with the negotiations said he agreed with Mr. Zebari's assessment and said it was unclear if a deal would be struck in time. 'It's a bit of a crapshoot at this point,' the official said. 'We're in the same ballpark, but we're not yet on the same field.'"

Keep in mind, however, that Zebari is one of the most pro-U.S. officials in the deeply fractured Iraqi central government, having gone so far as to pen a Washington Post op-ed in May begging American to keep its troops in his country.

Bush, at a joint press conference with French President Nicholas Sarkozy on Saturday, waved off a question about the apparent impasse: "[I]f I were a betting man," he said, "we'll reach an agreement with the Iraqis. You know, of course we're there at their invitation; this is a sovereign nation. And therefore, we're working hard with the elected government of Iraq about, you know, U.S. presence and coalition presence, in a way that the elected government is comfortable."

DeWayne Wickham writes in a USA Today op-ed: "What the United States wants from countries it occupies, it usually gets. . . .

"When asked during a news conference whether he was concerned about how the negotiations were going, Bush said: 'I think we'll end up with a strategic agreement with Iraq. . . . We're there at the invitation of the sovereign government of Iraq.'

"Forget about that shameless distortion of the truth for a moment and read between the lines. What Bush was really saying is that with the U.S. Army occupying Iraq, he expects to get what he wants."