After three-and-a-half years and three elections, this is what "democracy" has achieved in Iraq: a chronic case of deju vu. And, of course, approximately 100,000 to 150,000 casualties. And the death squads. Shouldn’t forget about them.
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March 20, 2006
WB: Groundhog Day
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The U.S. did not want elections in Iraq. Sistani had to get people demonstrating to change that.
Now the elcections an the constitution get overwritten to install an oligarchy to “lead” the country. The parliament will rubberstanmp all decisions.
Iraqi officials announced Sunday that they had agreed to form a council of the country’s top politicians to make policy on security and economic issues in the new government. The council, which will include the prime minister and president, is an attempt to include all the country’s major factions in decision making at a time of rising sectarian tensions.
The Iraqi Constitution approved by voters last fall does not have language supporting the creation of such a council. The 19-member body will essentially concentrate power in the hands of the country’s political party leaders, and supersede the cabinet and Parliament in making broad decisions.
…
Any decisions that require legislation will be put before Parliament, Mr. Pachachi said. But the Parliament will probably support any decisions made by the council because all the leaders of the major parliamentary blocs will sit on the council, he added.
Top Iraqi Leaders Agree to Form a Policy Council
How long since the election? When will there be a new governement?
http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=127828®ion=6
CIVIL WAR IN IRAQ: ALLAWI
20.3.2006. 12:17:28
Iraqi Shiite pilgrims attend a religious ceremony in the city of Karbala, south of Baghdad. (pic: AAP)
Three years after the invasion of Iraq, former interim Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi says that the country is in the grip of a civil war and Europe and the US will not be spared its consequences.
“It is unfortunate that we are in civil war,” Mr Allawi told BBC television on the eve of the third anniversary of the US-lead invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship.
“We are losing each day an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more,” he said. “If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is.”
Mr Allawi said he had warned against a political vacuum in Iraq, and expressed concern over the dismantling of Saddam’s armed forces and prevalence of militia groups.
Iraq was “edging towards” a deal between its political factions to secure a national unity government, but that would not represent “an immediate solution” to its post-invasion problems, Mr Allawi said.
“Iraq is in the middle of a crisis,” he said.
“Maybe we have not reached the point of no return yet, but we are moving towards this point. We are in a terrible civil conflict now.”
“It will not only fall apart, but sectarianism will spread throughout the region, and even Europe and the United States would not be spared all the violence that may occur as a result of sectarian problems in this region.”
Contrasting opinions
But US and British leaders rejected claims the country is sliding into civil war, and said they remain optimistic that a stable democratic society can emerge.
British Defence Secretary John Reid, who is visiting Iraq, has insisted that civil war was neither imminent nor probable despite increased violence between factions.
“There is no civil war, it isn’t imminent, it isn’t likely, although there has been an increase in sectarian violence,” Mr Reid told Sky News television from Iraq.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and the top US military commander in Iraq also said civil war is not underway.
“We’re a long way from a civil war and we are working towards a formula for a national accord” government, Mr Talabani said.
“I personally don’t believe, one, that we’re there now (in a civil war), two, that civil war is imminent and, three, that it is inevitable that it will happen,” General George Casey told Fox News television.
US Vice President Dick Cheney told CBS Sunday that ongoing violence only reflects “desperation” by Al-Qaeda to foment civil war.
“That’s been their strategy all along, but my view would be they’ve reached a stage of desperation. They are doing everything they can to stop the formation of a democratically elected government. I don’t think they’ve been successful,” Mr Cheney said.
President George W Bush said his government has a strategy for “victory in Iraq” and said he had been informed by US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad “of the progress the Iraqis are making toward forming a unity government.”
“We are implementing a strategy that will lead to victory in Iraq and a victory in Iraq will make this country more secure and will help lay the foundation of peace for generations to come,” the president told reporters on the White House lawn.
Latest polls
The Bush administration is facing rising doubts about its Iraq policy following weeks of deadly violence across the country.
US opinion polls this week showed support among Americans for Mr Bush and the war have plunged to all-time lows.
On Sunday, Newsweek magazine’s newest poll showed that approval of Mr Bush’s handling of Iraq plummeted to 29 percent while those who disapprove of his Iraq policy shot up to 65 percent.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll Thursday put Mr Bush’s overall approval ratings at 37 percent.
Posted by: vbo | Mar 20 2006 10:06 utc | 2
I really tried to convince myself that although the war was a mistake, it was a case of Bush erring on the side of security and freedom. I assumed there would be WMD’s, and once they were found, the question of whether they posed enough of a threat to warrant the invasion would become a matter for bloggers to argue over.
I still remain unconvinced. Show me some WMD’s and I will grudgingly admit that Bush was justified in his actions. Show me some proof that Saddam was plotting with terrorists to attack the US and its allies and I will shut up.
Now John Negroponte is promising us a package of “secret documents” that might shed some more light on some of the justifications we were given for the war. I would still like to believe that there was a justifiable reason for the billions of dollars and thousands of lives spent already.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Mar 20 2006 10:33 utc | 3
no no no no no. this is a very deep rabbit hole. secret documents, indeed.
Posted by: DM | Mar 20 2006 11:44 utc | 4
Watch me pull a rabbit outta my hat! Nothing up my sleeve!
(*roar*)
Gosh, I don’t know my own strength!!!
-Bullwinkle J. Moose
The conservative press and various trollistic blog sites have been awaiting these documents with baited breath.
I already can imagine that the most “Bush friendly” ones will trickle out first for maximum media effect before the other rather embarassing ones are allowed to see the light of day.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Mar 20 2006 11:59 utc | 5
How about some democracy in “free” Kurdistan
While the Kurdistan Regional Government has a parliament and a president, the administration of Kurdistan is carved up between two rival political parties the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) in Erbil and the adjoining Dohuk governorates, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Suleymania Governorate. The two parties monopolize power in their respective territories and their despotic tendencies threaten civil liberties and the fledgling democratic process, creating an environment that is rife with corruption and repression.
…
Kurdistan is a veritable police state, where the Asayeesh — the military security — has a house in each neighborhood of the major cities, and where the Parastin “secret police” monitors phone conversations and keeps tabs on who attends Friday prayers. While these security measures are an important part of why Kurdistan has largely kept jihadi and resistance cells from forming within its borders, security measures are often used by the ruling parties as an excuse to crack down on opponents and independent civil organizations, according to these groups. “Our members are regularly thrown in jail for seven or eight months at a time without cause,” said Hadi Ali, the Minister of Justice, the token KIU minister in the KDP-dominated Erbil administration. “When they get out I tell them that they are lucky to be alive and to keep quiet.”
…
In some time there will be a civil war in Kurdish Iraq ..
Quote:
I would still like to believe that there was a justifiable reason for the billions of dollars and thousands of lives spent already.
***
Ralph you forgot to mention 100 000 to 150 000 dead Iraqis…and counting…
Posted by: vbo | Mar 20 2006 14:12 utc | 7
I would still like to believe that there was a justifiable reason
that is human nature.
I really tried to convince myself that although the war was a mistake, it was a case of Bush erring on the side of security and freedom.
i think in order to face the dragon head on we first have to acknowledge the nature of the beast. as long as people remain confused and believe the charade, they keep it up. although it is glaringly obvious there is no plan to leave, in fact quite the opposite w/our permanent bases, there will always be an instinct however remote to cling to some hope our policies stem from ‘good’. they don’t.
the sooner we grasp the real possibility that our foriegn policy has been hijacked by evil men doing evil deeds, the better off we will be.
groundhog day, yep. that about says it all. we are on a merrygoround of spin.
The White House is trying to remind the disapproving public of Bush’s vision for Iraq with a public relations blitz
the new ‘strategy’ has nothing to do w/a cohesive plan, its just a different spin. one that doesn’t included the word war.
Bush did not mention the insurgent attacks, the car bombs or the mounting Iraqi deaths in a two-minute statement to reporters outside the White House after returning from a weekend at Camp David. Avoiding the word “war,” he called the day “the third anniversary of the beginning of the liberation of Iraq.”
its a circle game. this isn’t meant to discount all the people w/good intentions that have gotten carried along who have been used by the administration. no amount of good intention is going to reverse the true goals and objectives or consequences of the masterminds.
Posted by: annie | Mar 20 2006 15:50 utc | 8
ot. bill murray is my favorite comedian, i’ve seem groundhog day over and over and over again. weird how a movie w/so much repetition, still holds my attention.
Posted by: annie | Mar 20 2006 15:56 utc | 9
Iraqi police report details civilians’ deaths at hands of U.S. troops
At 230 of 15/3/2006, according to the telegram (report) of the Ishaqi police directorate, American forces used helicopters to drop troops on the house of Faiz Harat Khalaf situated in the Abu Sifa village of the Ishaqi district. The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 people, including 5 children, 4 women and 2 men, then they bombed the house, burned three vehicles and killed their animals (map coordinates 098702).
They were:
Turkiya Muhammed Ali, 75 years
Faiza Harat Khalaf, 30 years
Faiz Harat Khalaf, 28 years
Um Ahmad, 23 years
Sumaya Abdulrazak, 22 years
Aziz Khalil Jarmoot, 22 years
Hawra Harat Khalaf, 5 years
Asma Yousef Maruf, 5 years
Osama Yousef Maruf, 3 years
Aisha Harat Khalaf, 3 years
Husam Harat Khalaf, 6 months
(Signed)
Staff Colonel Fadhil Muhammed Khalaf
Assistant Chief of the Joint Coordination Center
3/16/2006
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 21 2006 0:12 utc | 10
Groundhogs may be finding more congenial holes –
As the intellectual environment deteriorates in the US, it is getting fewer science and engineering graduate students coming to study. Some prominent scientists are leaving. For example of the latest,
UBC scores academic coup by luring Nobel physicist
UBC scores academic coup by luring Nobel physicist
ROBERT MATAS
VANCOUVER — I wasn’t really able to do the atomic physics research at a level that I was very happy with any more. I’ve never wanted to be one of those doddering old scientists who are 30 years behind the times.’
Carl Wieman, Nobel laureate physicist on leaving the University of Colorado at Boulder for UBC
The University of British Columbia has scored a major academic coup, snagging an American Nobel Prize winner with a promise to pump $12-million over the next five years toward the professor’s passion to improve the teaching of science.
The departure of Nobel laureate Carl Wieman from the University of Colorado at Boulder was front-page news in the state and considered a significant blow to the U.S. university, where his superstar academic status helped attract millions in research funding over the years.
It’s the professor’s fascination with teaching that is bringing him to Canada. The University of Colorado offered Prof. Wieman just $5-million (U.S.) to fund his research into science education, about half of what UBC was putting up.
“This is quite significant, to have someone of his stature in the science community,” UBC president Martha Piper said …
Posted by: Owl | Mar 21 2006 0:54 utc | 11
busted
American arrested with weapons in Iraq-official
An American described as a security contractor has been arrested by police in a northern Iraqi town with weapons in his car, said a provincial official.
Abdullah Jebara, the Deputy Governor of Salahaddin province, told Reuters the man was arrested in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit on Monday.
The Joint Coordination Center between the U.S. and Iraqi military in Tikrit said the man it described as a security contractor working for a private company, possessed explosives which were found in his car. It said he was arrested on Tuesday.
maybe he was on his way to a mosque.
Posted by: annie | Mar 21 2006 9:00 utc | 12