Perspective: For U.S., Iraqi sovereignty cuts both ways

WASHINGTON: It is a refrain that President George W. Bush and his top deputies have uttered many times over:

"Iraq is a sovereign nation, and we stay because they have asked us to be there," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in October.

"Iraq is a sovereign nation which is conducting its own foreign policy," Bush said in November.

"It's a sovereign nation; it's their system, they make those decisions," Major General William Caldwell 4th, the American command's chief spokesman in Iraq, said last week.

Now, as Bush prepares to unveil his new strategy for Iraq on Wednesday night, the question is this: Can American officials compel the Iraqis to follow the new American plan?

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