Iraq’s parliament passed three laws Wednesday that were important to the Kurds (sharing revenue in the 2008 budget), Shiites (ensuring provincial governing powers) and Sunnis (granting limited amnesty to detainees held in Iraqi jails). That’s progress — albeit small.
The purpose of the military surge was to give Iraq breathing room to reach political solutions. But this is only the second of the 18 benchmarks set by the United States that has made it through parliament. And the future of the other measure — to allow lower-ranking members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party to reclaim government jobs — is unclear, the Washington Post reported.
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Iran has made faster progress than the fledgling United States did in they 1780s and 1790s.
woo hoo
Give them a damn cookie and let’s get the hell out of dodge.
Any “progress” in Iraq is probably largely due to the Iraqi’s limited awareness of American politics.
They know that a Democrat is going to be elected and that the US occupation of Iraq is going to end.
“The vote came a day after Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, the Sunni speaker of parliament, threatened to disband the legislature, contending that it was unable to adopt new laws because of the intense mistrust among the parties.”
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Makes you stop and think about what it takes to get their attention and get them to work. And maybe those who are saying if we start bringing the troops home they will understand they have to accept their responsibilities are correct too!
The news media just can’t stand progress of any kind against the terrorists and the islamic crazies. Yes the whole country could fall apart, with or without our help. No use for the liberal Washington Post just trying to make it worst for all.
If only we had a Democracy that has existed for over two hundred years to help us huh?
But no! We were left to find Democracy for ourselves, fight for it, argue for it, learn our own path.
Bleed for it and win it! We did not have it “bestowed “ upon us like some kind of prize for playing!
We had to earn it, a very “Republican” thing to do, that is why we should be cherishing it. Not given away lightly or scarified for a little illusion of security. The law of the land is solid, it is the argument to bend it that is damaged. The claim that to safeguard the rights and liberties of the American people we need to be able to spy without warrants or prove of need upon the American people.
That because simply writing into FISA the prevision that if a call starts in a foreign land and ends in a foreign land. BUT happens to pass through a line that transects the United States, such a call can be monitored without a warrant is too limiting. No ALL calls within the United States must be allow to be monitored. But then if I am not talking about anything illegal or terrorist related, why should I be concerned about the government listening in on my calls, reading my e-mails, tracking the web sites I visit? Why? because it is the law of the land is being violated and short of them changing the very Constitution itself the illegal activity is on their part! If Bin Laden and his not so merry band of men were trying to do the same thing. How many on this blog would rush from their computers , grab a firearm and confront them head on?
But yet in response to the pointing out of a concern about the government over stepping the forth and fifth amendments to the Constitution is often answer with that me-me of “well if you are not doing…”.
There IS a timetable for ending US involvement already in place. According to George WMD Bush we will not be operating there in Fiscal Year 2010 (begins 10/01/09). It is NOT in his projected budget.
Therefore, all we need to do is follow George WMD Bush’s own timetable to achieve Barack Obama’s goal of withdrawal.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
The news media just can’t stand progress of any kind against the terrorists and the Islamic crazies
George at this point in the game pointing out to you it is not terrorists we end up fighting in Iraq is redundant! Its an insurgence, those fighting to kick out those they see as foreign invaders. Be it Al-Qaeda or the U.S. soldiers, they are the same to the Iraqis.
And about those Islamic crazies, they are still alive and kicking or should I say planning in the boarder region of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Whether it is a success or a failure in Iraq it will not change that
Writerdog,
don’t know who coined it, but it fits…
“When you sacrifice liberty for freedom, you lose both. “
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1381.html
Those who give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety
Benjamin Franklin
WHEN GOOD MEN DO BAD THINGS.
You ever watch a movie called “THE OXBOW INCIDENT”, a group of good men thinking they had captured the most hated criminals of the west “rustlers” . Do what they think is right, in this case they lunch them. The good men are so sure that what they are doing is the right and just thing. They ignore any evidence that the men has really bought the livestock. Tragically after the deed is done they find the bill of sale. If you have not seen it, watch the debate over FISA and you will get the drift.
Sounds about right. Then and now. Too bad we don’t listen to our founders.
WD-
Hang ‘Em High.
Clint Eastwood.
Regular
Posted February 14, 2008 at 7:40 am | Permalink
Iran has made faster progress than the fledgling United States did in they 1780s and 1790s.
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Live in the past too ? What a moron ….
The funny thing about the Franklin quote is were supposed to take safety tips from a guy who flew kites in a lighting storm.
So what is our purpose in Iraq now, Saddam’s dead, no wmds, Iraq has a government, we’ve being training their military for a couple of years now.
How do you lunch somebody?
There’re two solutions in Iraq.
1. Pull out, and the three factions seek to annihilate one another. In the power vacuum, a new Saddam emerges.
2. Turn the entire operation over to a UN peace-keeping consortium and give the nascent Iraqi gov’t time to coalesce around leadership with vision.
The worst thing we could do is maintain the current policy of making Iraq safe for Big Oil and dangerous for everybody else.
The biggest farce in Iraq is the notion that we have established a “democratic” government there.
If they really had a democratic government with any power, they would have kicked our military out by now.
That’s what the people keep voting in favor of . . .
There’re two solutions in Iraq.
1. Pull out, and the three factions seek to annihilate one another. In the power vacuum, a new Saddam emerges.
2. Turn the entire operation over to a UN peace-keeping consortium and give the nascent Iraqi gov’t time to coalesce around leadership with vision.
THe first is the most likely. THe second will never happen. THe UN as a peacekeeping consortium is a joke. Sad, but true. Surley we can find another.
If the UN is a joke, LJ, it’s because the US has made it one.
We can have power and control or we can share power and have democracy.
But we can’t have both.
The US maintains the former so that the latter cannot happen. Better for huge multinational corporations that way . . .
Delivering pizza is a lot easier than delivering democracy. No one told George this, though.
How many of the 18 benchmarks are corrections of our screw-ups? – one was having Bathists back in the government – I thought it was the U.S. who insisted they should not be in the government in 2003.
What happened to “weeks, maybe months, definitely not years”?
Dennis
Posted February 14, 2008 at 11:35 am | \l “comment-293887″
How do you lunch somebody?
With Guffaw beans and a nice bottle of wine,,, :> The liver is quite tasty! Care to come be my diner…. Ah join me for diner?
Lynch, then we will have lunch Heee, care for a leg? Or are you a breast man?
Ah, nice to meet another smart alec
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[...] moby wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIraq’s parliament passed three laws Wednesday that were important to the Kurds (sharing revenue in the 2008 budget), Shiites (ensuring provincial governing powers) and Sunnis (granting limited amnesty to detainees held in Iraqi jails). … [...]
[...] WE Blog » The Wichita Eagle Editorial Department Blog wrote an interesting post today on Iraq finally made some political progress — albeit smallHere’s a quick excerptIraq finally made some political progress — albeit small Posted6:03 a.m. Iraq’s parliament passed three laws Wednesday that were important to the Kurds (sharing revenue in the 2008 budget), Shiites (ensuring provincial governing powers) and Sunnis (granting limited amnesty to detainees held in Iraqi jails). That’s progress — albeit small. The purpose of the military surge was to give Iraq breathing room to reach political solutions. But this is only the second of the 18 benchmarks set by the [...]