Iraqi PM sees peace in 6 months - if U.S. cooperates

[ECH1969]

Iraq's prime minister said on Thursday he could get violence under control in six months, half the time U.S. generals say they need, provided Washington gave him more weaponry and more say over his own forces.

In sharp criticism of the handling of Iraq's security by the United States, Nuri al-Maliki denied U.S. assertions he was working to a timetable of steps agreed with Washington.

"They think building Iraqi forces will need 12 to 18 months, for us to be in control of security," Maliki said, referring to remarks two days ago by U.S. commander General George Casey. "We agree our forces need work but think that if, as we are asking, the rebuilding of our forces was in our own hands, then it would take not 12-18 months but six might be enough."

"If anyone is responsible for the poor security situation in Iraq it is the Coalition," Maliki said.

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-10-26T220154Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-273820-1.xml

[BootinUp]

1. The ethnic cleansing must be going

along pretty good.

[acmavm]

2. No kidding. Sunni's should be an endangered species any

day now.

[saigon68]

6. Here is the Lecture on Peace

[Tesla]

3. OMG!!

ONLY 6 months from now? it only has taken over 200 years or more....

[Rose Siding]

4. Like Dean just told Franken,

"May I remind the prime minister that our soldiers are getting killed over there." followed by something like "He's going to have to work with us on that."

[William769]

5. I'm surprised he didn't say two weeks!

[Megahurtz]

7. WTF is he kidding? n/t

[GeorgeGist]

8. Be Bold Maliki...

Tell the Coalition they have 6 months to leave Iraq.

[ECH1969]

9. That would be the equivlent of Maliki announcing he has 6 months to live

[arewenotdemo]

10. al-Maliki has finally learned the key lesson

The American attention span is very limited; no more than a single friedman.

[gratuitous]

11. Wow, just one F.U. from peace!

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, an F.U. is a Friedman Unit, named for the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, dingleberry and frequent talker with foreign taxi drivers, who was heavily in favor of the invasion of Iraq for quite some time, and forever predicting that real change in Iraq was just about to happen. Iraq has been, over and over again in Friedman's columns, just "six months away" from some momentous improvement or another that would transform the country from a hideous hellhole to a miniature United States, the first fruit of democracy's bountiful crop in the Middle East.

[rail]

12. It's the verbal equivalent to being greeted as liberators:

"If anyone is responsible for the poor security situation in Iraq it is the Coalition," Maliki said.

Spoken like a man truly buying into, and implementing, the whole "{the US will} stand down when {Iraqi forces} stand up" policy.

[Jacobin]

13. What is it with this 'Six Months' thing they say every couple of months?

Is that like a magic number or something? Not too far away, but far enough away they can hope something might change?