With new Bush-Iraq treaty, are Obama's hands tied?

On Thursday, while Americans were enjoying their Thanksgiving feasts, the Iraqi parliament formally ratified a security agreement that the Bush administration and the Iraqi cabinet had reached earlier this month.

According to the Associated Press, the agreement will require U.S. forces to withdraw from Iraq entirely by January 1, 2012.

That's a good bit longer than the 16-month timeframe for withdrawal that Barack Obama promised while on the campaign trail.

The deal will be put to an Iraqi referendum in 2009. In the meantime, some questions:

• Does this mean that Obama's hands are tied?

• Is this the Bush administration's way of ensuring continued wealth for their war profiteer friends and continued access to Iraq's oil supplies even after the Bushies have left the White House?

• Is this George W's way of stealing Obama's thunder and taking credit for ending the war, albeit later rather than sooner?

It will be interesting to see how the Obama administration deals with this. Along with the economy, this will be an important test for the new president.

We the American people voted for Obama because we're sick of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. We will be watching. And so will the rest of the world.