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Okay, the political beat is not my usual stomping grounds, but I had to get this one in. I just read this article on the surprise handover of sovereignty to Iraq. I must admit, I am shocked. I never thought the U.S. would do it. I notice no mention of them removing any troops, but still, it is a powerful gesture.

The part that is bothering me is further down in the article, buried among the outline of the new rules the Iraqi leadership has laid out. This part:

On Saturday, Bremer signed an edict that gave U.S. and other Western civilian contractors immunity from Iraqi law while performing their jobs in Iraq. The idea outrages many Iraqis...

I don't blame them. This worries me. A lot. Granted, Iraqi law does not operate with the same sense of fairness as it does here. And perhaps there are some principles in them with which Westerners may not agree. But to exempt foreigners from the laws altogether invites the kind of license that is often taken here in this country by foreign diplomats. Consider the number of stories we've heard of diplomats, immune to prosecution, who run amok in their cities. Also, consider the number of cases we have heard about in recent years, assaults on civilian women and girls carried out by military men stationed in a foreign country. Thinking themselves above the law. Above common decency.

I think one of the first bastions against the chaos of human nature is a code of rules, and fear of punishment. This is the beginning of civilization; you can't leave it up to man's better instincts. Without law, I don't think he ever would have developed any.