by TChris

President Bush said little last night that was new, but what he said wasn't enough to satisfy those who believe that a handover of sovereignty should actually involve ... well ... a handover of sovereignty.

The president of the Iraqi Governing Council said today that a proposed U.S.-British blueprint for a post-occupation Iraq falls short of expectation, and several key U.N. Security Council members said the proposal presented to the United Nations does not make clear whether the new government will have full authority over Iraq's security, and when foreign troops would leave. They said that raises the question of whether there will be a true handover of power on June 30.

A sovereign nation would be entitled to tell the U.S. to take its soldiers and go home, but Bush offered no plan for withdrawing troops. He's letting the Iraqis decide whether we should demolish the Abu Ghraib prison, but he gave no suggestion that he intends to allow Iraqis meaningful control of their country after June 30.

The U.N. resolution that the U.S. proposed doesn't achieve true sovereignty any time soon.

The resolution sets no date for the troops to leave, although it calls for a review after 12 months, or earlier at the request of the elected government. France, Germany, China, Chile and Russia would like to have an earlier reassessment, or to simply leave the force's mandate to the new Iraqi government to decide.