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Blunderov
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Iraqi government in deepest crisis
« on: 2007-07-27 13:03:32 » |
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[Blunderov] Generally speaking I try not to post stuff from major sources like Yahoo on the assumption that most people who would be interested in that item would have already seen it.
But his one is different. This report throws into sharp relief the intractable chaos that Dubya has wrought throughout the entire region.
The only solution is for the USA to leave immediately and completely IMV. It's like the baboon and the pumpkin; the stupidity of hanging on to the fistful of seeds inside the pumpkin will surely prove mortal. Let it go.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070727/wl_csm/ogrind
Iraqi government in deepest crisis
By Sam Dagher
Fri Jul 27, 4:00 AM ET
Baghdad - Iraq is in the throes of its worst political crisis since the fall of Saddam Hussein with the new democratic system, based on national consensus among its ethnic and sectarian groups, appearing dangerously close to collapsing, say several politicians and analysts.
This has brought paralysis to governmental institutions and has left parliament unable to make headway on 18 benchmarks Washington is using to measure progress in Iraq, including legislation on oil revenue sharing and reforming security forces.
And the disconnect between Baghdad and Washington over the urgency for solutions is growing. The Iraqi parliament is set for an August vacation as the Bush administration faces pressure to show progress in time for a September report to Congress.
At the moment, Iraqi politicians are simply trying to keep the government from disintegrating. On Friday, top Iraqi officials were set to convene in the Kurdish north for a crisis summit, in the hopes that talks held outside of Baghdad's politically poisonous atmosphere may bring some resolution to the current political standstill. President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the president of the semiautonomous Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, were set to meet at the Salaheddin summer resort at the end of a difficult week.
On Wednesday, the Iraqi Accordance Front said it pulled out of Mr. Maliki's coalition government, but would return its six cabinet members if the prime minister met a list of demands. The Sunni bloc says it wants, among other things, pardons for detainees not facing specific criminal charges and for all militias to be disbanded.
"We are frankly in the midst of the worst crisis," says Fakhri Karim, a close adviser to Messrs. Barzani and Talabani who also publishes the independent Al Mada newspaper. He says he doubts the Friday meeting will find any resolution because of the new political tussle with the Iraqi Accordance Front.
"Most of the political blocs have failed to operate within the framework of national consensus. They can't even properly formulate their positions and proposals, let alone realize the very serious dangers that surround everyone."
The gravity of the situation was underscored by several officials. "We have a governmental crisis. Our people expect better performance," said Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
And since Saturday, US Ambassador Ryan Crocker has been shuttling between Iraq's top leaders, but an embassy spokesperson said this was not necessarily indicative of a crisis.
"The surge has done well in making a difference in security conditions. But it isn't a light switch for reconciliation; there are no quick fixes to years of bitterness and violence," he said.
Some US military officers have expressed concern privately that Iraq's leadership has failed to take advantage of some of the breathing room offered by the US-led surge against insurgents and militants.
The crisis is also fueling discontent and alienation among Iraqis.
"They are making us regret we ever voted for them ... they should learn something about unity from our soccer team," said an anonymous caller on a state television program on Wednesday after Iraq's victory over South Korea in the Asian Cup semifinals.
Iraq's two rounds of elections in 2005 were historic in many ways. They empowered once-marginalized Shiites and Kurds, but the experience also enshrined and even codified in the new Constitution a consensus-based system that is built on a delicate division of authority along sectarian and ethnic lines.
This was meant mainly to accommodate the embittered Sunni Arabs who were slow to embrace the political process and continue to fuel a violent insurgency that has spiraled into a bloody sectarian war.
But 14 months after Maliki, a Shiite, formed his so-called government of national unity, Iraq's quest for democracy has hit a wall. Political leaders, mainly Shiites and Sunnis, are now trading a barrage of very serious recriminations.
"The partnership experience has been dealt major blows ... we tried to maintain our good intentions and patience ... but we have been faced with arrogance, a monopoly over power, and efforts to eliminate [us] in every way," said Khalaf al-Olayan from the Iraqi Accordance Front at a press conference announcing the suspension of six cabinet members from the government.
If they pull out, it would bring to 12 the number of vacancies in Maliki's 39-member cabinet.
"We are firmly convinced after this bitter experience that this government represented by its prime minister is incapable of joining a truly patriotic project," added Mr. Olayan, surrounded by Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi and the front's other leaders.
He said the pullout would become finalized in a week unless Maliki showed willingness to fulfill a list of 12 conditions that boil down to releasing thousands of detainees held in US and Iraqi prisons without charges, ending what the front considers the indiscriminate targeting of Sunnis.
Sami al-Askari, a parliamentarian and close adviser to Maliki, said all the accusations and demands by the Sunni bloc are merely a smoke screen for one thing: "Hashemi's desire for more powers than what has been accorded to him under the Constitution."
Mr. Askari accused the Sunni bloc of operating from the get-go more like opposition than a partner. Maliki and his Shiite allies have repeatedly charged that the Sunnis want to bring down the government and reverse the current political equation with the help of regional Sunni Arab powers Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Before the withdrawal of the Sunnis from the government, there had been efforts last week to contain the crisis, namely by resuscitating a proposal to create a coalition of so-called moderates to back the government and "isolate the extremists on both sides, Sunnis and Shiites," according to Foreign Minister Zebari.
Robert Springborg, director of the Middle East Institute at the University of London, says the heart of the problem was that no one is truly committed to a strong and unified government.
"The actors involved have their own agendas, the central government and its resources are a tool for their own aspirations ... none are committed to a government for all Iraqis," he says.
Pointing to the growing disconnect between Washington and Baghdad, Askari, Maliki's adviser, says, "Washington believes that passing the oil law will impact on reconciliation and the security situation. We beg to differ. This matters little to the armed groups that kill Iraqis every day. Their sole agenda is to reverse what we have achieved so far."
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Hermit
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Re:Iraqi government in deepest crisis
« Reply #1 on: 2007-07-27 15:10:59 » |
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I'm not sure I would have had the chutzpa, or perhaps poor judgement, to use the phrase "Their sole agenda is to reverse what we have achieved so far." Nor am I persuaded that this would be a bad thing. Not that I think it can be achieved. Unfortunately.
What some in the US State Department *(which seems to have the only intelligence assets still possessed by the US worthy of the designation) are slowly becoming aware of is that the Iraq "Government of National Disunity" is effectively an Iranian puppet government that has been paralyzed by its reluctance to commit seppuku in public by signing onto the the American oil theft bill - which the administration is of course saying is the only possible way to end the chaos. Quite how the miracle is to be accomplished is currently obscured by the waving hands.
Given that the GAO intends to release a critique of the "achievements" in Iraq a week before the administration's September report is due, the sword of Damocles must be beginning to seem very bright and sharp. All the more reason to fear an attack on the USA or on one or more of the rapidly swelling list of countries the Cheney/Lieberman cabal, speaking for Israel, thinks we should nuke. And the Democrats, proving they are true friends to Israel, stumble along in his wake.
The only hope left is that Cheney will be impeached before this happens; and that congress finds the balls to eliminate the effect of the politicized, neocon dominated Supreme Court by increasing the number of judges to something that at least restores balance, which at this point would necessitate swinging the court hard the other way.
I'm not hopeful that there will be elections in the US that can actually change the ongoing charge to the gutters of the charnel house, but at this point I (and looking at the Federal Election Commission report on campaign contributions, it seems most of the US military agree) would be inclined to vote for Ron Paul despite his affiliation - as he is the only politician showing any spine, and the only Presidential candidate making any sense at all. Now if he, Cindy Sheehan and somebody with sufficiently deep pockets got together, change might be possible. But if we are alive, and if there are further elections in this poor country, I anticipate the same-old-same-old outcome. Irrespective of whether the republicrats or the democrans next make it to the front of the trough, will be a difference that makes little if any difference at all.
Kind Regards
Hermit
PS Weak governments full of divisions seem to achieve the least - and to my mind are therefore to be encouraged...
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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Blunderov
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Re:Iraqi government in deepest crisis
« Reply #2 on: 2007-07-28 03:16:57 » |
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Quote from: Hermit on 2007-07-27 15:10:59 | <snip> All the more reason to fear an attack on the USA or on one or more of the rapidly swelling list of countries the Cheney/Lieberman cabal, speaking for Israel, thinks we should nuke. </snip> |
[Bliunderov] Dirty business, religion.
http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=11363
Armageddon – Bring It On
by Gordon Prather
Last week the Christians United For Israel organization held its annual show-of-force in our Nation’s Capital and Max Blumenthal recorded for posterity – if, God Willing, there is to be one – this most "politically extreme, outrageous" spectacle.
"Founded by San Antonio-based megachurch pastor John Hagee, CUFI has added the grassroots muscle of the Christian right to the already potent Israel lobby. Hagee and his minions have forged close ties with the Bush White House and members of Congress from Sen. Joseph Lieberman to Sen. John McCain.
"In its call for a unilateral military attack on Iran and the expansion of Israeli territory, CUFI has found unwavering encouragement from traditional pro-Israel groups like AIPAC [America-Israel Public Affairs Committee] and elements of the Israeli government.
"But CUFI has an ulterior agenda: its support for Israel derives from the belief of Hagee and his flock that Jesus will return to Jerusalem after the battle of Armageddon and cleanse the earth of evil. In the end, all the non-believers – Jews, Muslims, Hindus, mainline Christians, etc. – must convert or suffer the torture of eternal damnation."
According to the Jewish Blumenthal, the typical CUFI member apparently believes "God" wants Bush to do what Lieberman and the Likudniks are urging him to do – nuke Tehran – to trigger an all-out nuke war to bring on Armageddon – the final climatic battle, waged here on the planet Earth, between God and Satan.
But the Russians and the Chinese evidently did not consider Bush’s premeditated war of aggression against Iraq to even be necessarily inimical to their national interests, much less a cause to wage all-out war with nukes.
And they were right. Bush’s invasion and occupation of Iraq has done immense damage to America’s image, vis a vis theirs.
Nor does it appear the Russians – and perhaps even the Chinese – consider Bush’s upcoming war of aggression against Iran to be necessarily inimical to their national interests, even if Bush is crazy enough to nuke Tehran.
It seems likely, at present, that the Russians – and perhaps even the Chinese – would not object to Bush doing further incalculable damage to America’s image, to say nothing of America’s ability to influence – diplomatically and militarily – world events, especially in the Western Pacific.
Stranger still, it does not appear that even the Iranians consider Bush’s upcoming war against Iran to be necessarily inimical to their national interests. Even if he uses – or threatens to use – a few nukes.
And no one who knows anything about the effects of nuclear weapons – who has read Herman Kahn’s authoritative treatises On Thermonuclear War – could expect that even an all-out nuke war between Hagee and Russia/China, involving thousands of high-yield nukes, could result in the deaths of even half the world’s almost seven-billion inhabitants.
Of course, the percentage of deaths resulting from Hagee’s War would be higher in the United States than in Russia or China or in the Islamic World, because a higher percentage [75%] of Americans live in urbanized areas, prime H-Bomb targets.
But, what the hell – if you’ll pardon the expression. All the survivors are going to have to convert to Hagee’s "Jesus," anyway, or "suffer the torture of eternal damnation." Better to have died during Armaggedon. Or just before, like Jerry Falwell.
Historian Barbara Tuchman, when asked why she wrote A Distant Mirror, replied she wanted to examine the societal consequences of what the aftermath of an all-out nuke war might be. So she chose the 14th Century in Europe, when The Black Death quickly killed up to two-thirds the population. To her immense surprise, she was unable to detect any evidence of societal consequences.
Of course, we don’t have to worry. The Cheney Cabal, the Likudniks and AIPAC consider CUFI members to be useful idiots, holding naïve and foolish religious beliefs, useful to their program to remake – militarily, if necessary – the Middle East to their liking, politically and economically.
Surely neither President Bush or any of his close associates hold such naïve and foolish religious beliefs. Right?
Well, Michael Gerson – now a Washington Post columnist and until last year chief speech writer for President Bush – wrote a column last week in which he concluded that the mess that the Cheney Cabal has wrought in Iraq would probably be made worse by an outright attack on Iran. So, Gerson proposed, instead, a bank-shot – the "use of force" against Syria "to disrupt the trail of suicide bombers" Gerson claims are "passing through Syria" on their way to "murder" Americans.
But Gary Leupp, a Professor of History at Tufts University and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion, notes that Gerson was rated in 2005 by Time magazine to be one of the top 25 Christian evangelicals in America.
"As a member of the White House Iraq Group, tasked to disseminate frightening disinformation about Iraq preparatory to the attack on Iraq in March 2003, he proposed the "smoking gun turns into a mushroom cloud" metaphor used by Bush, Cheney and Rice in late 2002 to frighten the nation into war.
"Gerson wants to transform the Greater Middle East, that biblical prophecy might be fulfilled and Jesus comes back soon. According to the Book of Revelation, there must be a great war surrounding Israel before that happens, involving kings to the east of the Tigris and Euphrates. That implies war with Persia (Iran). So he wants the U.S. to provoke war with Iran, but if that's not doable just now, he wants an attack on Syria."
Now, Leupp does not charge that the fulfillment-of-biblical-prophecy convictions of speechwriter and propagandist Gerson are held by Bush, himself.
Of course not. The "God" Bush talks to every day – who tells him what to do, who assures him that he is doing the right thing in sending thousands of American servicemen to their deaths in Iraq, in collaterally ending the lives of many, many thousands of Muslims – is not Gerson’s "God." Is not Hagee’s "God."
Of course not.
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