THE US, THE UN AND IRAQ, TENTH THREAD.

Gelisgesti wrote:

ican711nm wrote:

Gelisgesti wrote:

What about all those purple fingers?
By: John Amato @ 12:10 AM - PDT Submit or Digg this Post

David-Brooks.jpg David Brooks has incredible access to the White House so when he said this shocker on "The Chris Matthews Show," I believed him. Bush is thinking about replacing the entire Iraq government. I kid you not.
...

Allow those fingers to get purple again!

Yes, it would probably be a good idea to convince the current Iraq government to resign after holding a new election ... and to keep doing that ... until the Iraqis finally elect a government that is capable of protecting Iraqis against those deliberately killing them.

You know, at first I thought you missed the point .... then I thought naaa, you ducked the point.
Then I realized .... you don't have a freakin clue.

More likely, this is your blatant confession that you are ducking my point. Otherwise, you'd find some logical argument to try and refute my point.

Gelisgesti wrote:

ican711nm wrote:

Gelisgesti wrote:

What about all those purple fingers?
By: John Amato @ 12:10 AM - PDT Submit or Digg this Post

David-Brooks.jpg David Brooks has incredible access to the White House so when he said this shocker on "The Chris Matthews Show," I believed him. Bush is thinking about replacing the entire Iraq government. I kid you not.
...

Allow those fingers to get purple again!

Yes, it would probably be a good idea to convince the current Iraq government to resign after holding a new election ... and to keep doing that ... until the Iraqis finally elect a government that is capable of protecting Iraqis against those deliberately killing them.

You know, at first I thought you missed the point .... then I thought naaa, you ducked the point.
Then I realized .... you don't have a freakin clue.

More likely, this is your blatant confession that you are ducking my point. Otherwise, you'd find some logical argument to try and refute my point.

Here is an interesting piece that says that we should get out of Iraq before we are forced out.

The main reason given now for staying is that the country will fall into a horrific civil war should we leave. Our ambassador to Iraq recently said this. But guess what, such as war is going on and we can do nothing to stop it. Thus, what is the purpose of staying?

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/17/iraq_leave_or_be_forced_out.php

The other thing we can do is withhold oil revenues from the Iraq governent until they display the courage they need to adequately govern.

ican711nm wrote:

Gelisgesti wrote:

ican711nm wrote:

Gelisgesti wrote:

What about all those purple fingers?
By: John Amato @ 12:10 AM - PDT Submit or Digg this Post

David-Brooks.jpg David Brooks has incredible access to the White House so when he said this shocker on "The Chris Matthews Show," I believed him. Bush is thinking about replacing the entire Iraq government. I kid you not.
...

Allow those fingers to get purple again!

Yes, it would probably be a good idea to convince the current Iraq government to resign after holding a new election ... and to keep doing that ... until the Iraqis finally elect a government that is capable of protecting Iraqis against those deliberately killing them.

You know, at first I thought you missed the point .... then I thought naaa, you ducked the point.
Then I realized .... you don't have a freakin clue.

More likely, this is your blatant confession that you are ducking my point. Otherwise, you'd find some logical argument to try and refute my point.

The logical argument is, of course, that we don't have the right to remove the duly elected gov't of Iraq. Surely you can see how attempting to do so will doom any chances of Iraq becoming a democracy, as it rapidly becomes obvious that the gov't has no real legitimacy except for that granted by the US.

Of course, you know this, but still persist in your recommendation... why?

Cycloptichorn

Yes, it would probably be a good idea to convince the current Iraq government to resign after holding a new election ...

Yes, it would probably be a good idea to remove the current Iraq government ...

If you think that we could 'convince' the gov't to resign, without resorting to 'forcing' them to resing, you are living in some sort of fantasy world. There is no way that these guys, who fought incredibly hard for the power they have, are just going to give it up without a fight. Many of them are tightly linked to the militas as well, so they have soldiers to man this fight.

I guess we should 'convince' Bushco. to resign as well as long as we are at it....

Cycloptichorn

Yes, it would probably be a good idea to convince the current Iraq government to resign after holding a new election

Yes, it would probably be a good idea to negotiate and attempt to convince the current Iraq government to resign after holding a new election

The End of Press Freedom in Iraq?

Al-Zaman, the Times of Baghdad, reports [Ar.] that press freedom may soon be a thing of the past in Iraq. The Iraqi parliament on Monday passed a resolution calling on the president of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, to intervene to close down the offices of the al-Sharqiyah television channel in Iraq, and to close down a newspaper, al-Zaman itself! Both are owned by a media group headed by Saad al-Bazzaz, and they have a mild secular, Arab nationalist tone. It is not a point of view welcome to the Shiite fundamentalists who dominate the Iraqi parliament.

The parliamentarians were upset about the negative coverage in the two news outlets of the vote last Wednesday by a bare majority to create the rules for the establishment of provincial confederacies. The vote was rammed through by a simple majority once a bare quorum had been established, despite the boycott of the vote by several major political blocs, including those of the Sunni Arabs. The parliamentary maneuver was contrary to the spirit of the promises made to the Sunni Arab community last year this time that if they joined the political process they would be given a voice on such matters. Al-Zaman covered the vote critically and called it a black day for Iraq.

The parliamentarians, presumably mainly members of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, accused the two of purveying mere rumors and gossip.

al-Sharqiya Television employs 400 reporters, administrators and technicians. Al-Zaman newspaper employs 150 reporters, 160 technicians and administrators in all of its Iraq-based operations. The parliament warned these two media organs against repeating their "unacceptable coverage."

Please write your legislators and urge them to pressure the Iraqi government to abide by the freedom of the press provisions of the Iraqi constitution.

I already see less controversial news in al-Zaman than I used to. I think the window of relative press freedom may be closing. Al-Zaman has a London edition and can be kept alive abroad, but would lose something important if its editorial offices ceased being in Iraq.

Coalition deaths hit 3,000
The death toll for coalition military forces in Iraq hit 3,000 Monday, according to a CNN tally.

The combined death toll includes 2,759 U.S. troops and seven American civilian contractors of the military.

Other coalition deaths include 119 British, 32 Italians, 18 Ukrainians, 17 Poles, 13 Bulgarians, and 11 Spaniards, as well as service members from Australia, Denmark, Estonia, Fiji, Holland, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Romania, Salvador, Slovakia, and Thailand

The Baker report on an exit strategy from Iraq, leaked this week in the US, is as sensible as it is sensational. It rejects "staying the course" as no longer plausible and purports to seek alternatives to just "cutting and running". Stripped of political sweetening it concludes that there is none.

Blair's last comment on Iraq was that any withdrawal would be "craven surrender" and would endanger British security. This is mad. Even Bush can admit to be "open to new ideas on Iraq". Blair has clearly not heard of Baker's report. Perhaps he should hurry to Washington for new instructions from the boss.