Iraqi parliament unlikely to approve long-term presence.

In a White House press briefing yesterday, Iraq war czar Gen. Doug Lute claimed that the Bush administration would not need congressional approval for it’s new long-term occupation plan that envisions an endless, unqualified, “enduring” presence in Iraq. Though it is unclear if Lute is correct in his assertion, it is clear, as Spencer Ackerman points out today, that the Iraqi constitution requires “that Iraq’s parliament has to ratify any such agreement.” Considering that 144 out of 275 parliamentarians signed a petition in May for U.S. troops to begin withdrawing, it is unlikely that two-thirds would now vote for them to stay.