"U.S., Iraq starting work on long-term treaty"
"Blueprint would outline state-to-state relationship, military roles."
Now, exactly how does one nation "negotiate" a treaty with another nation if the second nation has troops marching up and down it's streets, bombing it's cities, shooting it's citizens, with evenit's mercenary civilian armies killing Iraqis at will, completely unaccountable to local authorities? This is as much "negotiating" as one does with someone holding a gun to their head.
Anything this unsavory clearly has to be done before Bush leaves office.
Arf