Iraq? Sovereignty? Surely You Jest

This is an entire post by Eli. His comment at the end is spot on.

In today's news:

Iraq will ask the United Nations to end immunity from local law for U.S. troops, the government said on Monday, as the U.S. military named five soldiers charged in a rape-murder case that has outraged Iraqis.

"If we don't get that, then we'll ask for an effective role in the investigations that are going on. The Iraqi government must have a role." [said Human Rights Minister Wigdan Michael]

The day before handing formal sovereignty back to Iraqis in June 2004, the U.S. occupation authority issued a decree giving its troops immunity from Iraqi law. That remains in force and is confirmed by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1546 on Iraq.

A country does not have any kind of sovereignty, "formal" or otherwise, when it is occupied by soldiers of a foreign power and it has to ask "permission" of the United Nations or the occupying power to be in charge of its own territory.