With mindless punditry dominating the news and even the The Surge having fallen off the radar, one can scarcely blame the poor American journalism community from not bothering to notice the negotiations over the Status-of-Forces agreement with the nominal Iraqi government.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/06/11/f-rfa-macdonald.html

... and the world sighs a collective "Duh" about why there was never a planned withdrawal. Those of you with a passing familiarity with our foreign policy may recognize such treaties as covering our base facilities in such volatile hotspots as Japan, Guam, and Germany ...

Not overly suprising, makes sense all things considered. Makes more sense for us to maintain a series of bases there as opposed to the relatively calmer bases in Europe (speaking of the here and now! )