The never ending cycle of greed from the Bush administration can give you whip lash. It appears that we, Americans, could have been out of Iraq for awhile now, but for the geed of Bush, the oil barons and the war profiteers we are still there.
Last week, a majority of Iraqi lawmakers demanded a timetable for U.S. and other foreign troops to leave their country. The very next day, the Al Fadhila party, a Shi’ite party considered moderate by the (often arbitrary) standards of the commercial media, held a press conference, in which they offered a 23-point plan for stabilizing Iraq.
The plan addressed not only the current situation in Iraq — acknowledging the legitimacy of Iraqi resistance, setting a timetable for a complete withdrawal of occupation troops and rebuilding the Iraqi government and security forces in a non-sectarian fashion — but also the challenging mission of post-occupation peace-building and national reconciliation. It included provisions for disbanding militias, protecting Iraq’s unity, managing Iraq’s natural resources, building relationships with other countries based on mutual interest and the principle of non-intervention in domestic issues, and healing the wounds of more than 30 years of dictatorship, war, sanctions, and foreign occupation.
Al Fadhila’s peace plan was not the first one offered by Iraqi actors, nor the first to be ignored by the Anglo-American Coalition. More significant even than proposals made by Iraqi political parties are those put forth by the country’s armed resistance groups — the very groups that have the ability to bring a halt to the cycle of violence.
But these plans are unacceptable to the Coalition because they A) affirm the legitimacy of Iraq’s armed resistance groups and acknowledge that the U.S.-led coalition is, in fact, an occupying army, and B) return Iraq to the Iraqis, which means no permanent bases, no oil law that gives foreign firms super-sweet deals and no radical restructuring of the Iraqi economy. U.S. lawmakers have been and continue to be faced with a choice between Iraqi stability and American Empire, and continue to choose the latter, even as the results of those choices are splashed in bloody Technicolor across our TV screens every evening.
So Bush and the 109th Congress dismissed the Iraqi government plan. I guess the Iraq government is just as irrelevant as Carter. Had the plan been accepted, we would not have needed the surge, which by the way is failing. However, if we accepted the plan and left that would’ve meant far less profits for the boys at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Enter Mitch McConnell, top-ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate, who just last week said “if the Iraqi Parliament votes to ask the United States to leave Iraq, “we’ll be glad to comply.” I guess Mitch suffers the same hearing affliction that Bush does.
On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq’s parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement, the nationalist Shia group that sponsored the petition.
It’s a hugely significant development. Lawmakers demanding an end to the occupation now have the upper hand in the Iraqi legislature for the first time; previous attempts at a similar resolution fell just short of the 138 votes needed to pass (there are 275 members of the Iraqi parliament, but many have fled the country’s civil conflict, and at times it’s been difficult to arrive at a quorum).
On Sunday, May 13th, McConnell said “So far, they’ve not been able do anything they promised on the political side,” the Kentucky Republican said, citing the Iraqis’ failure to pass a new oil revenue bill, hold local elections and dismantle the former Baath Party of Saddam Hussein. “It’s a growing frustration.”"Republicans overwhelmingly feel disappointed about the Iraqi government,” he added.
Poor Mitch, he’s frustrated with the lack of Progress with the Iraqi Government. Maybe when he was a member of the 109th Congress, they shouldn’t have dismissed the Iraq plan. McConnell should rethink his stone throwing.
It’s not surprising to me that the Iraqi Government thumbs its nose at us. They obviously tried to start a peace process and stabilize their country but they were thwarted by Bush and the gang. The never ending lies of Bush and the GOP
