"The call for changes in the proposed accord came as the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki criticized an attack by Iraq-based U.S. forces on alleged al-Qaedaoperatives inside Syria last weekend. The cabinet now wants the agreement to include language to "confirm that Iraqi land would not be the center for aggression" against its neighbors, said Planning Minister Ali Baban, who attended Tuesday's meeting.

"Ministers also want the pact to grant Iraq more legal authority over U.S. soldiers accused of crimes, to harden a tentative 2011 departure date for U.S. troops and to allow Iraqi inspection of U.S. military shipments. The inspection demand, along with an explicit ban on attacks on neighboring countries, reflects concerns that the United States might launch an attack on Iran from Iraqi territory.

"The raid on Syria succeeded in shattering of the Bush regime's dictatorial SOFA demands and also its failed, misnamed, misguided misreading about "war on terror." and our relationships in the region."

As I wrote last week: "I have been saying to Democrats since 2001, quit using the phrase "war on terror."  It is a complete misnomer and militarizes what should be a criminal matter.

Bush's war on terror caused overreaction and concealed reality, and considering this criminal Bush regime, "got us off on the wrong foot" is an understatement.

And Matt Duss writes this at Wonk Room about the so-called "war on terror."

"Further, the various implications of the events in Syria and Iraq show again how counterproductive is the whole "war on terror" framework, and why it should be scrapped as soon as possible. Positing U.S anti-terrorism policy as an existential struggle in which there are two sides” A) "with us" or "against us" ”needlessly puts a potentially unpopular and thus politically costly choice before those regimes whose cooperation we're trying to secure. The government of Iraq has an interest in preventing foreign fighters from entering its territory and attacking its citizens, but it has no interest in signing on to a global war which looks to its own citizens too much like neo-imperialism. The government of Pakistan has an interest in stopping the spread of Salafist extremism, but no interest in publicly siding with John Bolton against Osama bin Laden. Why ask them to?

"Additionally, the "war on terror" plays right into the propaganda of our enemies. Bin Laden has proclaimed a war of civilizations between Islam and the West. Declaring a "war on terror" in response only helped to affirm him. By recognizing bin Laden and his gang as adversaries worthy of a "twilight struggle" with the world's most powerful country, we're effectively granting them a status they don't deserve. We should cut it out."

The criminal Bush regime is truly the worst administration ever.  Yet, impeachment was taken off the table.