http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_Provisional_Authority ...the CPA transferred power to the newly appointed Iraqi Interim Government at 10:26 AM local time on June 28, 2004. The CPA thus disbanded, L. Paul Bremer left Iraq that same day.
The war had ended when bush said so on the carrier A. Lincoln. The Occupation ended when Bremer left. From that moment forward our troops have been in limbo. An "Occupation" is defined in international law. When you occupy, you are in charge. You run things. You don't stand back and say "it's their fault there is no electricity"
Our troops are being misused, illegally, to perform police duties, kicking down doors looking for gangsters (aka "insurgents", aka "sectarian militias"), defusing bombs, arresting people, setting up roadblocks to look for criminals, etc. The CinC issues illegal orders every day that he keeps them there doing that. We maintain a presence in other countries like S. Korea at the invitation of the host government, but we don't perform local police duties. Only a UN-authorized "peacekeeping force" comes even close to what he has them doing, and the UN won't send a force in until a local war is far calmer than this one.
bush is way far off the reservation on this. That is why he is trumping up this "agreement" for a long-term presence. He is trying to get retroactive legitimization for his criminal enterprise (well, this aspect of it at least)