This is the mess in Iraq that the Democrats, especially Jack Murtha, have been warning about:

Iraq will ask the United Nations to end immunity from local law for U.S. troops, the government said on Monday, as the U.S. military named five soldiers charged in a rape-murder case that has outraged Iraqis.

In an interview a week after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki demanded a review of foreign troops’ immunity, Human Rights Minister Wigdan Michael said work on it was now under way and a request could be ready by next month to go to the U.N. Security Council, under whose mandate U.S.-led forces operate in Iraq.

“We’re very serious about this,” she said, adding a lack of enforcement of U.S. military law in the past had encouraged soldiers to commit crimes against Iraqi civilians.

“We formed a committee last week to prepare reports and put it before the cabinet in three weeks. After that, Maliki will present it to the Security Council. We will ask them to lift the immunity,” Michael said.

I am sure the White House and pundit spin is already in full gear to try and downplay this as an “act of appeasement by the new government for their people”, or some other typical bullshit. The fact lies in this article with this line: “adding a lack of enforcement of U.S. military law in the past had encouraged soldiers to commit crimes against Iraqi civilians. “.

Now we get to see what kind of battle this turns into in New York. The only option is for the U.S. to allow this. Failure to do so will prove 100% that we are an occupying force. So does Bush have the balls to stand behind his platform and trust the Iraqi’s to deal with these soldiers, or will he prove the left has been right all along? That question is what turns this into a bombshell for the administration, and one that can easily backfire on them. We got check – can we get checkmate?