Pepe Escobar: Bush comfortable on the SOFA

WASHINGTON - The Iraqi parliament has its date with destiny this Wednesday, after dozens of its 375 members nearly came to blows debating the proposed US-Iraqi Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). And that's not counting an even higher percentage that's not familiar with the final text because they simply had no time to digest it. It's literally a take it or leave it, do or die affair; parliament goes into recess immediately after the vote.

At the finish line, it's still unclear how all 56 Sunni MPs will vote. Critics inside and outside Iraq are already spinning the pact as a joint Shi'ite-Kurdish conspiracy (the 83-member United Iraqi Alliance plus the 53-member Kurdistan Alliance, both pro-pact on the grounds it's the lesser of all evils because at least it sets a timetable for US withdrawal).