Iraqi lawmakers demand U.S. withdrawal

[babylonsister]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17644.htm

Iraqi lawmakers demand U.S. withdrawal

By United Press International

05/04/07 - - - BAGHDAD, May 2 (UPI) -- As calls in the U.S. Congress grow for a scheduled troop withdrawal from Iraq, similar demands are escalating in Iraq's National Assembly.

Some 133 Iraqi lawmakers from different political blocs, calling themselves the "free deputies," signed a document demanding a scheduled withdrawal of the U.S.-led multinational troops from their country, according to the Sadrist bloc in Parliament.

A legislator from the Sadrist bloc, Saleh al-Okaili, told reporters Wednesday that his group initiated the document ahead of a U.N. Security Council review on Iraq slated for next month. The Sadrist bloc, whose Cabinet ministers had resigned, represents members of a group led by Shiite maverick leader Moqtada Sadr, who has been calling for setting a timetable to end the U.S.-British occupation of Iraq.

Okaili said the memo signed by the lawmakers in the 275-seat Parliament would be handed over to the U.N. Security Council and its secretary-general, the Organization of Islamic Conference and the Iraqi government.

"We call on the Iraqi government to refer to Parliament when discussing a review of the foreign presence in Iraq and not to deal unilaterally with the issue, as has been the case in the past," the lawmaker said.

© Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. How dare they? I mean, who do they think

they are?

The Saudis will be pissed!

[acmavm]

2. I wonder about this. This is coming from al Sadr's Shi'ite bloc. No Sunnis

are involved from the tone of this story.

While I want us out I do wonder what the hell will happen the minute we're gone with a Shi'ite government and a Shi'ite majority in the country. I expect a Sunni bloodbath. But it's gonna happen slowly like it is now, or in a storm, like I worry it will then. But either way, we can't prevent it. We are the cause, we gave the Shi'ites the ability to ethnically cleanse Iraq. And it is looking darn near inevitable.

Have I mentioned how much I detest the bush** family and the neocons today? Well, consider it mentioned.

[burythehatchet]

8. Think about this

George Bush, when all is said abd done, will have more blood on his hands than any human being in the history of mankind. Yes, including Hitler.

[Horse with no Name]

10. Which is precisely why he is so set on "staying the course"

Because "he thinks" that the blood will be on whoever is President and that when he leaves office that his predecessor automatically takes the fault for whatever happens.
Got news for him.
History will not be kind to him.

[burythehatchet]

11. nor will history be kind to us, we who allow this to go on

in a collective sense

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

13. More than Hitler? More than Stalin? More than

Mao?
More than Pol Pot?
More than Queen Victoria?
More than Columbus?
More than Andrew Jackson?

I don't think so.

Lots, for sure, but millions?

[burythehatchet]

16. he's not done yet. Every reprisal killing in Iraq is on his hand AFAIC

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

17. Yeah, but... Hitler has more dead bodies

on him than there are Iraqis.

That is if you count all the casualties of the ETO as "his" since he started the war.

[Adsos Letter]

14. "...including Hitler"? ummmm...no.... n/t

[newyawker99]

19. Hi adsosletter!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[stillcool]

12. Pepe Escobar has an interesting ..

article....
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IE05Ak01.html

ROVING IN THE RED ZONE
The man who might save Iraq
By Pepe Escobar

BAGHDAD - He is a former Sunni Arab mujahid from Ramadi who until recently was fighting the US occupation. He has only a secondary education and is married with two wives. Now he is praised even by urban, secular, highly educated Shi'ites as a "conscious man", or "the kind of man we need now in Iraq". Sheikh Abdul Satter Abu Risha is the leader of the Anbar Sovereignty Council, a powerful coalition of Anbar tribes, including at least 200 sheikhs, that is fighting the Salafi jihadis of al-Qaeda in Iraq/the Islamic
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abu Risha certainly has political aspirations. "If the government is weak, they should move aside and leave space for other, prepared people." The sheikh wants to set up a tribal political coalition, which would be called "Revivals of the Sheikhs of Iraq". Now the Anbar Sovereignty Council has even changed its name to "Iraq Awakening". It plans to take government matters into its own hands, and distribute food rations to the population of Anbar province.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What people do know and have started to notice is the increasingly high profile of Sheikh Abu Risha. He may not be Iraq's savior, but as the larger-than-life tragedy of Iraq stands, a Sunni sheikh leading a tribal coalition fighting alongside a predominantly Shi'ite Iraqi government against Salafi jihadist terror is better news than any "international community" rhetorical flourishes emanating from Sharm al-Sheikh, where the international community was debating Iraq's future.

Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007). He may be reached at [e-mail].

[Igel]

18. It's a bit more detailed than yesterday's

New York Times article, but essentially the same point.

Of course, the point was hinted at last September in the MSM, and then vehemently ignored until very, very recently. The al-Masri claim made it impossible to avoid. Conservative bloggers (and some standard sources) have been following it since September. Since I prowl both sides of the aisle, what surprised me was that it got into the MSM. Often facts do not cross the aisle; it makes for humorous reading ... on both sides of the aisle.

While Escobar outdoes the Times for detail, a blogger or two leave Escobar in their wake. One claim is that an important AQ/ISI-supporting tribe's defected in the last couple of weeks, and that at least two other (of the 6) have been split for a while ... and a third has just fractured between ISI and ASC support.

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. No. We're big and bad and we'll do what we damn well please.

kuz I'm the prezudint.

[G_j]

4. the great white father knows best

now pipe down you backward, ignorant people!

:sarcasm:

[burythehatchet]

9. word

[Joe Fields]

5. I remember very clearly Bush saying that when they ask us to leave,

we'll leave.

Well?

[Edweird]

6. No Kidding. "Hey thanks for breaking all our $hit. Don't let the doorknob hit you in the a$$."

[AnOhioan]

7. Has the chimp not stated publically....

"We will leave if the Iraqi's ask us to"? Well, the request just came. Now what Georgie??

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

15. Ok, I surrender

whatever, let's just get the fuck out of there.

Bloodbath? Yep, it's inevitable. Let's get out.

[RL3AO]

20. They cant tell us what to do *sarcasm*