to get something passed in the parliament

in all the articles about the negotiations over the status of forces agreement with iraq, i haven't seen any mention the fact that any such agreement has no chance of being ratified by the iraqi parliament. over a year ago, a clear majority of the iraqi parliament went on record as wanting the withdrawal of u.s. forces and there's been no significant change in the makeup of the parliament since then.

the only way for such an agreement to happen is if the u.s. forces arm twists the iraqis into not submitting the deal to parliament for ratification. that would violate the iraqi constitution and make the deal illegal and unenforceable. but that doesn't mean the bush administration won't do it.

except that president bush is now on record acknowledging that the deal has to pass the iraqi parliament, as he said yesterday about the negotiations:

And it’s interesting to be working with a democracy where, you know, people are trying to prepare the ground to get something passed in the Parliament, for example, or the free press is vibrant, but we’re going to work hard to accommodate their desires. It’s their country.

the u.s. has ignored the actions of the iraqi parliament before. indeed, the presence of american troops in iraq currently violates an act of the iraqi parliament and the iraqi constitution, a fact that the american press has all but ignored. but now that bush has publicly identified ratification as part of the process, i wonder if the press will make a peep if they ignore the ratification requirement again.