Parliament adjourns in blow to Bush

[babylonsister]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L30808071.htm

Parliament adjourns in blow to Bush
30 Jul 2007 19:17:38 GMT
Source: Reuters


By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD, July 30 (Reuters)

snip//

The recess leaves Bush with little to show Americans after sending nearly 30,000 more troops to Iraq to give Iraqi leaders breathing space to reach a political accommodation.

"Bush cannot realistically go to Congress and say he has to keep U.S. troops there because the Iraqi government is doing a good job -- because the government is largely absent. It places him in a very difficult predicament," said Gareth Stansfield, an analyst at leading British think-tank Chatham House.

Petraeus said commanders felt they would need a substantial force in Iraq at least until mid-2009.

"Sustainable security is, in fact, what we hope to achieve. We do think it will take about that amount of time ... to establish the conditions for it," he told ABC News.

Washington has pressed the Iraqi government to speed up passage of laws that include measures to distribute Iraq's oil reserves and ease restrictions on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party serving in the civil service.

It views such laws as key to reconciling disaffected members of Iraq's Sunni Arab community, once politically dominant under Saddam and now locked in a vicious sectarian conflict with majority Shi'ites that has killed tens of thousands.

A U.S. embassy spokesman said that during parliament's recess it was important Iraq's leaders "remained actively engaged on key legislation and trying to reach agreement on the sticking points".

more...

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L30808071.htm

(I guess these leaders might chat occasionally if they were even headed in the same direction, which is unlikely)

[frogcycle]

1. Bush gets blow job??

NOW we can impeach!!!

[babylonsister]

3. Nah, this was the middle-finger salute showered on him by many! nt

[JTG of the PRB]

2. This shouldn't worry Bush.

After all, the US Congress is about to go on vacation too, so Bush can cause all sorts of mayhem from the Western White House.