BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 29 — Facing growing pressure from the Bush administration for him to step down, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari of Iraq vigorously asserted his right to stay in office today and warned the Americans against undue interference in Iraq's political process.
Good God! Bush is screwed! By tomorrow, the White House will no doubt be swarmed by purple fingered Republicans who are outraged at the Bush administration's interference with the great and noble Iraqi March of Freedom!
The Gee Oh Pee takes this Iraqi sovereignty thing seriously, you know. They're totally and emotionally committed to Iraqi self rule.
Mr. Jaafari also defended his recent political alliance with the radical anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, now the prime minister's most powerful backer, saying in an interview that Mr. Sadr and his thousands-strong militia were a fact of life in Iraq and need to be accepted into mainstream politics.
Oops! There's the problem! Jaafari is part of the reality based community. And, "that's not the way the world works anymore."
Mr. Jaafari said he would work to fold the country's myriad militias into the official security forces and ensure that recruits and top security ministers abandon their ethnic or sectarian loyalties.
The existence of militias has emerged as the greatest source of contention between American officials and Shiite leaders like Mr. Jaafari, with the American ambassador arguing in the past week that militias are killing more people than the Sunni Arab-led insurgency. Dozens of bodies, garroted or executed with gunshots to the head, turn up almost daily in Baghdad, fueling sectarian tensions that are pushing Iraq closer to full-scale civil war.
A full scale civil war? Hundred of people are winding up dead in ditches every day. In Baghdad. People are identifying themselves as part of Brigades, Armies, militias. Neighbors are killing their neighbors--and not just killing them. Before being killed, people are having their fingers and toes cut off, acid poured on their faces, and holes drilled into their skulls.
When will this be a civil war? When people get battle flags?
And this myriad of militias are being integrated into what? The Iraqi security forces we've heard such good news about? That we're spending a fortune on training?
Granted, Bush is unhappy about it. But here you have the Iraqi Prime Minister saying, "That's the reality." If that's the reality, then Bush has been out of his gourd for the last three years. At least. And if that isn't the reality, then turning sovereignty over to the Iraqis was a horrible idea.
And if turning sovereignty over to the Iraqis was a bad idea--and it was Bush's idea on Bush's artificial election year time-table--then this whole war was a bad idea. It was premised on two things that were untrue and one thing that was impossible.
The embattled Mr. Jaafari made his remarks during the hourlong interview at his home, a Saddam Hussein-era palace with an artificial lake in the heart of the fortified Green Zone. He spoke calmly, relaxing in a black pinstripe suit in a ground-floor office lined with books like the multivolume "The World of Civilizations…"
There's so much good news in Iraq which the "liberal" media is ignoring that the Iraqi Prime Minister has to live in the American protected, heavily fortified Green Zone. Ugh.
And how stupid is it that Iraq's new Prime Minister, leading the March Of Freedom, propped up and protected by American firepower, resides in one of Saddam's old palaces? The Gee Oh Pee has spent at least four years telling us Saddam--who was and is an asshole--was Hitler, Jr., and the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Iraq moves into one of his palaces???
If we take the Gee Oh Pee at their word, this is the equivalent of setting up the post World War II German government in the Eagle's Nest. Saddam's a dick. You get no argument from me. But why are all these crazy right wingers, who consider him to be evil incarnate, not screaming for palaces to be bulldozed into the ground?
Because they don't really care. None of this has anything to do with evil or the Iraqis or democracy at all.
"The source of this is that some American figures have made statements that interfere with the results of the democratic process," [Jaafari] added. "These reservations began when the biggest bloc in Parliament chose its candidate for prime minister…"
What is it, Republicans? Is it Freedom? Is it really freedom?
Senior Shiite politicians said Tuesday that the American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, had weighed in over the weekend, telling the leader of the Shiite bloc that President Bush did not want Mr. Jaafari as prime minister. That was the first time the Americans had openly expressed a preference for the post, the politicians said, and it showed the Bush administration's acute impatience over the stagnant political process…
No. It isn't. It's something else entirely. So shut up about the "freedom" thing. Because here it is, and it's ugly and it's "untidy" and it's not what you wanted. Personally, I never believed it was what you wanted. But now we know for sure.
"I look at them as part of Iraq's de facto reality, whether some of the individual people are negative or positive," he said. "Anyone who's part of the Iraqi reality should be part of the Iraqi house…"
Oh, Christ, there he goes again with that stupid reality thing.
The police forces are stocked with members of the Mahdi Army and the Badr Organization, an Iranian-trained militia, who still exhibit obvious loyalties to their political party leaders…
Those are the same militia who the Bushies blame for the sectarian violence in the same security forces the Bushies praise for containing the sectarian violence.
…[b]ut since taking power last spring, Mr. Jaafari has come under widespread criticism for failing to stamp out the insurgency and promoting hard-line pro-Shiite policies…
So far, the entire Shiite bloc has publicly backed Mr. Jaafari despite the growing opposition to his candidacy.
And, oh yeah, those are the same hard line Shiite factions who run Iran. Which is working frantically on their own nuclear weapon. Why? Who knows? Though, they're the same hard line Shiite factions that blew up 200 Marines in Lebanon before Reagan leaned hard on them by selling them weapons and spare military parts...
Ow, my head.
This thing is so incredibly fucked up--so Republican fucked up--if it weren't for the new stratospheric debt levels fiscally conservative Republicans have set for our country, I'm not sure I would even vote Democrat in 2008.
Why should Democrats inherit this colossal fuck up? It's unfixable. As much as I desperately want smart responsible government to take over in Washington again, there's a part of me which really wants to see Republicans take full, sole, and absolute responsibility for this horrific fiasco which they fully, solely, and absolutely created.
The only problem with my little wicked fantasy is that:
One, Republicans never take responsibility for anything; and
Two, leaving this horrific mess to them will only make it worse.
Your right Democrats will get the blame win or lose.
Although Bush did blame Saddam Hussein for the violence.
Posted by: merlallen | March 30, 2006 at 01:04 PM
The same thought has crossed my mind, and it pains me greatly. I wonder if this is why there is really no republican front runner for the 2008 election currently, maybe they really want to drop this on a democratic president since it really is a no-win situation now. Oh sure, McCain is out there flogging the campaign horse but his age makes this a silly proposition; it's probably him being forced one more time to do the neocon bidding by making it look like a republican really wants to succeed Shrub.
Or maybe the truth is that this bunch is so sure Jeebus is coming to earth in a rain of fire for the unsaved that they see no reason to plan for the future since in their eyes, there is no future. The problem is that their actions are leading us to the "no future" option, and not because of divine intervention but because of the same, tired old reason: unbridled stupidity combined with power. And they wrap it up so nicely in the lag and apple pie, don't they?
Posted by: Kit E | April 01, 2006 at 01:10 PM
Violence is negative. People in general doesn't appreciate such acts.
Posted by: click here | May 26, 2011 at 06:54 AM