What Has The Security Agreement Done To Us

On July 1st, the Security Agreement, colloquially referred as a SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) agreement, went into effect here in Iraq. The Security Agreement specified that Coalition Forces (specifically combat units) were to move out of the cities and would only be able to conduct combat patrols in combination with Iraqi Army. This meant that any patrols, with certain exceptions, had to be invited by the Iraqi Army or at the request of the GoI. In the country, where we are, the Security Agreement is a lot more flexible...or so we thought.

I don't know what's being reported, but here's some reality on the ground. Since 01JUL09, there have been several of our patrols that have either been stopped by Iraqi Security Forces, or have been turned around, or have been told to stop whatever mission they were doing, or even had weapons pointed at them. This has the makings of a future incident between CF and ISF.

We've talked at length on this, and no one knows what may happen. Our speculation hinges on the reaction of our well disciplined soldiers and that's where I'll leave that. Everyone keep your fingers crossed as we move forward with this deployment.