"One last chance" for peace in Iraq" PM says

[bigtree]

if not, then what?

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told Iraqis on Wednesday they had one "last chance" for peace as U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld held talks with Iraqi leaders on the escalating sectarian violence in the country.

The U.S. commander in Iraq said Shi'ite "death squads" were fuelling a spike in the violence in which scores of people have been killed in street fighting, reprisal attacks and bombings in Baghdad neighborhoods in the past few days. The U.S. ambassador said communal bloodshed was now a bigger threat than al Qaeda.

Maliki told parliament a national reconciliation plan he has promoted was Iraq's "last chance" to stem the violence.

"If it fails, I don't know what the destiny of Iraq will be," he told the assembled Iraqi lawmakers, including representatives of the minority Sunni community who had staged a week-long boycott in protest at the kidnapping of a colleague.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060712/ts_nm/iraq_dc;_ylt=A0SOwlC8K7VELisBhxBZ.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--


related:

Eye on Iraq: Iraq faces more massacres
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/article_1180286.php/Eye_on_Iraq_Iraq_faces_more_massacres

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. "national reconciliation plan"

Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny are going to deliver it.

[TomInTib]

3. Aren't they the same guys that were gonna deliver the 'Road Map'?

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. If this is their last chance, then there are no more chances. It's over.

Let chaos reign.

[uppityperson]

2. MrUP fears carpetbombing Baghdad, if GreenZone implodes

Last night we were discussing what might happen if the GZ implodes, helicopters out, many media killed, carpetbombing Bahgdad. Can't predict, but will be watching.

[thereismore]

4. national reconciliation, a.k.a. amnesty to those who kill Americans, is

a necessary bitter pill that we must swallow. That's how it works, folks. Iraqi blood is one thing, and American blood is another. Didn't many in the US think the same way for years? Only counting American casualties, etc.

So, in the name of peace, we have to cut our losses and forget. It's a bitter pill ... thanks George.