There’s been conflict between Congress and the Bush administration in the past several months over the Declaration of Principles Bush and Maliki signed last November. The Declaration of Principles appears to commit the U.S. to defending Iraq from both internal and external threats. Such commitments have previously only been made by treaties, which require Senate approval.
Last Thursday the Politico reported that a “senior administration official” claimed this was all a misunderstanding stemming from an Arabic-to-English translation of the Declaration of Principles. I’ve written a new piece for Democrats.com examining whether there’s any evidence for this. The answer appears to be no.