Just to offset the alarmism by Mr. Grobbie, who tends to play Fox News at times, AKA Mr. Fair and Balanced:
Quote:
On the safety of the 12 man Mitt Team Question -
Arab Culture has a very nice feature which is a kind of Guest Status. If you are a "Guest" then no harm should come to you no matter what. The track records with the Mitt Teams has been quite good.
There are currently 54 Iraq Army Brigades..the Iraqi AirForce barely exists. Each of those Iraqi Army Brigades would like to have the ability to call in Air Support if necessary. The Iraqi Army also has no artillery..each of those Iraqi Army Brigades would like the option to call for Artillery support if necessary.
Unless I've missed something there are also 4 Corp Support bases planned.
So we have 58 Iraqi Army installations. The commanders of which will all want the ability to get Air and Airtillery Support. If they want that support...they will need a Mitt Team. Having Iraqi Army commanders who english may not be all that good calling in bombing co-ordinatest o pilots that speak no Arabic is probably a bad idea for all involved.
I remember way back when I was on a tiny six man team attached to a Foreign Goverments Military there was a "Status of Forces Agressment". The agreement covered things like the standard of Housing that would be provided. Middle Eastern Toilet Facilities are quite different from Western Toilet Facilities.
Our agreemnt specified that we would have seperate housing built to applicable US Military standards. The agreement also stated who may or may not enter our housing unit. The fact that the local country allowed its religious police to barge into private citizens homes without a warrant was something the US Government was not willing to subject its Soldiers to. So there was a 'degree' of US Sovereign protection that applied to our apartment block...similar to that which is granted to an Embassy. Technically our apartment block could have beeb considered a "US Base".
This is where we get Mr Get Everyone in a Tizzy Shiite politician implying 58 Large US Bases.
The degree of exemption from local law is always a difficult discussion...the Mayor of New York is none too happy that UN Diplomats are exempted from paying parking tickets. Normally in these Status of Forces agreements the US Military insists the UCMJ be the governing law and the local governments insists it laws be the governing law. Then some lawyers sit down and compare the UCMJ against the local law and identify differences, then there is an agreement as to what local laws will be incorporated into the UCMJ via a General Order. I would note that it is legal for an Iraqi Citizen to drink alcohol but under General Orders it is illegal for a US Soldier to drink alcohol while in Iraq. In some cases US Military law is actually stricter than Iraqi Law.
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