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 Maliki Doesn’t Deserve All the BlamePosted on Aug 24, 2007By E.J. Dionne WASHINGTON—Maybe Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki should just enter our primaries next year and Americans could vote up or down on whether he should remain in office. The surest sign of how bad our choices in Iraq have become is the eagerness of both of our political parties to blame the entire mess on the man American officials helped install in his job. After all, it was taken as an American victory back in April 2006 when Maliki replaced former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari, who faced many of the same criticisms Maliki does today. Now, Maliki is the problem. Among Democrats, both Sens. Carl Levin and Hillary Clinton have called for replacing him with “a less divisive and more unifying figure,” as Clinton put it. On consecutive days, President Bush was against Maliki before he was for him. On Tuesday, he suggested that Iraqi disappointment with Maliki might lead to his ouster. “If the government doesn’t respond to the demands of the people,” Bush said of the Iraqis, “they will replace the government.” On Wednesday, he declared that Maliki was “a good guy, a good man with a difficult job” and added: “I support him.” Who knows what the administration’s position on Maliki will be by the weekend? Maliki has done a less than stellar job, but it’s absurd to place all the blame on him for the failure of a political process that American policies set in motion. Nor can he be faulted for the administration’s lack of foresight—before we started this war—in anticipating how difficult it would be to achieve reconciliation between the Sunnis and the Shiites. Bush compared Iraq to Vietnam this week, and there is at least one area in which the metaphor is instructive: When we failed to achieve our objectives in Indochina, we kept hoping that a new South Vietnamese government would solve our problems for us. But our repeated interventions in Saigon’s politics did not improve the situation—and arguably made it worse. It’s no accident that American politicians find themselves inveigled in Iraqi politics. The president’s troop surge was designed not to achieve some decisive military result but to bring about a political result—to give Iraqis “breathing room” to settle their sectarian differences. That’s why both sides in the war debate are talking past each other. Supporters of the administration point to signs of military success and insist that we should keep at it. The administration’s opponents don’t deny some military gains—at considerable cost in American lives. But they argue that the continuing political disarray in Iraq shows that the surge has failed to achieve its primary objective and that we should begin to disentangle our troops from a civil war. The debate as it’s currently configured puts a much higher short-term political burden on congressional Democrats than Republicans. The president has the easier political objective: He needs only to block congressional action that would force him to alter his policy. As long as most Republicans stick with him, he wins. Democrats, on the other hand, are in a classic damned-if-they-do, damned-if-they-don’t situation. On Thursday, for example, House Democrats held a private conference call discussing whether they should push a proposal by Reps. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii and John Tanner of Tennessee that would require the Pentagon to produce a plan for redeployment of American troops. The Abercrombie-Tanner measure would likely win more Republican votes than a proposal to force a troop withdrawal. As one House Democrat noted, this might increase pressure on Bush to change course and would, in any event, show that Democrats are seeking a bipartisan way out of Iraq. But as a top Democratic congressional aide noted, allowing such a vote could anger the party’s large antiwar constituency, who would see it as a half-way measure, and still not force Bush to change policy. In this view, allowing votes on moderate withdrawal proposals might actually reduce pressure on Bush to shift course in Iraq by making it unnecessary for congressional Republicans to support tougher withdrawal plans. The sad fact is that this war has created stasis in American politics. If Bush doesn’t budge, he is likely to be able to continue his approach—even if a majority of the country has turned against it, and even if there is no political reconciliation in Iraq. No wonder our politicians find it so attractive to trash Maliki. He has become the punching bag for American failures. But come 2008, if things don’t get better in Iraq, it is Bush’s policies, not Maliki’s, that American voters will judge. E.J. Dionne’s e-mail address is postchat(at)aol.com. © 2007, Washington Post Writers Group SHARE THIS TRUTHDIG ARTICLE:
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By Peter RV, August 30, 2007 at 3:40 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Ref.#97376 by Cyrena
Guapa:
Report thisIf we adopt your (and Paolo’s) principle, we would have to bomb every single country in the World to set ‘free’ their ethnic and religious groups.
So, solution is in making more bombs?
By cyrena, August 28, 2007 at 6:18 pm #
#97268 by Paolo on 8/28 at 7:09 am
...."Nonetheless, I think the essential point remains correct: countries like Yugoslavia and Iraq, which are creations of outside powers imposing a central government on very different ethnic and religious groups, is doomed to fail."…
Paolo,
This absolutely IS the essential point, as history has proven over and over again, and especially in Muslim countries of the Middle East and North Africa. This long, long history of the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, and so much else that has kept the region in flux, with all of these artificial borders, has always started out with outsiders installed in these various nation states, and it always turns out badly.
It doesn’t work, and history has proven that it always leads to horrific bloodshed, in order to restore the self-determination that is essential for any society to thrive.
By now, it really shouldn’t require all of this bloodshed. These lessons should have been learned.
I still say the Iraqis should have kicked us out long ago, but whenever I say that, my comments get censored.
Report thisBy Paolo, August 28, 2007 at 7:09 am #
To Peter RV,
Thanks for the corrections. I know the Slovenes are Catholic; poor sentence construction on my part made it seem I was saying otherwise.
I was not aware that Yugoslavia was a post WWI rather than post WWII creation; my assumption was that the dictatorship of Tito arrived simultaneously with creation of the country. Carelessness on my part.
Nonetheless, I think the essential point remains correct: countries like Yugoslavia and Iraq, which are creations of outside powers imposing a central government on very different ethnic and religious groups, is doomed to fail.
Report thisBy June, August 28, 2007 at 4:01 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
#97221
Report thisCyrena:
Thank you for the link. I couldn’t agree more—except to the extent that I think Gonzales’ resignation is significant, if only because it is a tacit admission that the hue and cry against his behavior, whether inadvertent (in the case of incompetence) or deliberate is valid. I also think it stands as a warning to his successor that things had better change one hell of a lot in the Justice Department, or the same consequences will ensue again.
By cyrena, August 27, 2007 at 9:21 pm #
#97214 by June
We allow erosion of the absolute separation of Church and State at our peril.
Indeed, not to mention the rule of law, as you mentioned before. I don’t know if I included this earlier, though I did on another thread. It’s an excellent piece by William Rivers Pitt.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082707R.shtml
Meantime, it seems to me, (and I don’t think it’s just my imagination) that the whole destruction of the seperation of church and state has mostly come about in the past decade, as these fanatics and evangelistic zealots have come out of the woodwork.
It continues to amaze me, and it’s so odd, because I’ve been around religious zealots all of my life. (A real Catholic environment).BUT, none of them mixed any of that stuff up with the business of the State. So, this is all pretty overwhelming. Very scary.
Report thisBy June, August 27, 2007 at 8:56 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Thank you, cyrena. The most vicious prejudice in our poor world is not based on skin color but on what some hold to be the condition of other people’s “souls.” As recently as 1949, I was in the hospital with a woman from Texas who didn’t believe Blacks had souls, although she was a very “Christian” person. That same belief, of course, made it possible for slaves to be regarded as mere animals and therefore not worthy of humane treatment. Throughout the history of the US, various religious groups have done everything in their power to discourage the free exercise of others’ beliefs and practices. For example, in the early nineteenth century, an itinerant Presbyterian pastor had to pass through a Universalist community in New York State to get to one of his flocks. He was treated repeatedly to persecution that included taking the wheels off his wagon, so he finally gave up on his mission. Then there was the convent burned to the ground in Boston during the same period, allegedly because of a rousing anti-Catholic sermon delivered by Beecher. What progress we’ve made in avoiding such attrocities (for the most part) in more recent times lies in better enforcement of laws put in place, often, by a nonsectarian intelligensia. We allow erosion of the absolute separation of Church and State at our peril.
Report thisBy cyrena, August 27, 2007 at 1:42 pm #
#97106 by June on 8/27 at 10:02 am
We co-exist because of our Constitution, the sheer size of the United States (where it would be impossible to rally an overwhelming majority to any one cause), and our relatively stable economy that allows most people to feel comfortable, not because we are one whit more civilized and tolerant that anyone else in the world.
========================
I’m so glad you noted this June. If we were being completely honest here, we would have to admit that we aren’t even AS civilized or tolerant as most of the rest of the world.
The even more frightening reality is that the things you’ve mentioned, like our Constitution and our relatively decent economy, as the forces that keep us reasonably in check, have now begun to deteriorate so profoundly, that there’s little left to hold that civilized or tolerant mindset in place.
And, it’s not like we’re receiving any guidance from our “leadership” on this.
Report thisBy Tony Wicher, August 27, 2007 at 11:54 am #
It seems to me that people need to learn how to live together, whether in Israel/Palesine or in Iraq. I think there are certain democratic principles of equality and freedom that make this possible. But they must come from within, not be imposed from without. As in the case of Yugoslavia, what was repressed is still there, and it manifests itself again as soon as the external pressure is removed. True democracy involves a transformation of human consciousness, seeing people as equal human beings first, and only secondarily in terms of their race, creed, color or religion. This is political enlightenment. It cannot be fostered with bombs. But it can be fostered by enlightened policies of peace and generosity.
Report thisBy June, August 27, 2007 at 10:02 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Why is it so difficult to understand the rancor among various factions of Iraqis? Imagine what would happen in this country if the Right-wing Christian Fundamentalists succeeded in getting a stranglehold on the government (as they would love to do) and excluded all other religious groups from exerting any influence, or imagine that an Fundamentalist Hassidic sect of Jews somehow managed to impose the strictures of rigid Mosaic Law on the rest of the country. You think there wouldn’t be bloodshed? Dream on. We co-exist because of our Constitution, the sheer size of the United States (where it would be impossible to rally an overwhelming majority to any one cause), and our relatively stable economy that allows most people to feel comfortable, not because we are one whit more civilized and tolerant that anyone else in the world.
Report thisBy Peter RV, August 27, 2007 at 8:17 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Ref.# 97017 by Paolo
Report thisSome mistakes.
First, Yugoslavia existed before WWII. In fact it was created after WWI. It was, you could have called it, Woodrow Wilson’s ‘baby’. The ‘nation’ of Yugoslavia, the ‘country of the Southern Slavs’, did make sense since its enormous majority consisted of Croats and Serbs (Slavic Tribes)who speak the same language, but differences turned out to be more important. Croat’s allegiance was to Germany and Serb’s to Russia;and ,in both Wars, WWI and WWII, they fought (rather ferociously) on opposite sides.( Moral: even the things that make sense do not necesarily work- attntion Americans!)
True,the union was quite delicate but perhaps could have survived in some form had it not been for foreign interference.
Solvenes are not orthodox but catholics.
By Marjorie L. Swanson, August 27, 2007 at 3:30 am #
#96730 by lilmamzer
If we aren’t blowing Iraq to hell what are those pilots dropping, marshmallows? What was “Shock and Awe” all about? What are you talking about? We invaded another country, we bomb the hell out of them and now the mess created is all their fault? Damn, you have got to be a Republican. No one else is that delusional.
Report thisBy Druthers, August 27, 2007 at 12:52 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Why not just furnish electronic voting machines to Allawi, or better yet let the Supreme Court intervene once again?
Report thisBy KYJurisDoctor, August 26, 2007 at 11:25 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
As for Al-maliki: If he wants to lash out at anyone, ... he needs to look in the mirror and at his countrymen and women who refuse to work with him to find a political solution for their country’s dilemma!
http://osi-speaks.blogspot.com/2007/08/iraq-pm-al-mali ki-lashes-out-at-us-his.html#links
Report thisBy Debra Istvanik-Strotman, August 26, 2007 at 8:09 pm #
How do we, the americans. dictate to Iraq that Maliki will stay or go? Can you imagine all the people in the world who hate Bush calling the White House and saying “England here, you will resign today.” I wish!
Iraq did not ask us to invade their country, neither did Vietnam, and anything that results from us attacking these countries is on our heads. Bush blames the citizens of the United States for all the death and destruction after we pulled out of Nam, but had we not gone there in the first place none of that would have happened.
Some people do not want our type of democracy and it is up to the people of a country to decide what they will fight and die for, not us.
Bush wanted to attack Iraq because he thought his daddy was wrong to chase Hussien out of Kuwait and not go to war with Iraq, so Jr. wanted to prove himself to be a better man than his daddy. Sick!
Report thisBy Paolo, August 26, 2007 at 4:03 pm #
Iraq is, in some way, similar to the old Yugoslavia, which was cobbled together at the conclusion of WWII by the victorious allies.
The “nation” of Yugoslavia made no sense, ethnically or geographically. Only an iron-fisted dictator, Josip Broz (aka “Tito") could hold it together. Kinda like Saddam Hussein, doncha think?
After Tito’s death, the “nation” of Yugoslavia broke up into indigenous regions, which will all be for the better in the long run (provided meddling American interventionists can keep their hands off). Catholic Croatia is now separate from Orthodox Serbia, Slovenia, and Macedonia.
Sometimes, if you keep your hegemonic hands off a region, they’ll figure things out for themselves.
Could the fake “nation” called Iraq peacefully split up into indigenous regions to accommodate the differing viewpoints of Sunni Arabs, Shi’ites, Kurds, Turkmen, and others?
We’ll never know, so long as we try to impose the will of our dimwitted intelligentsia on the region. It’s been reported that Bush, even after the invasion, didn’t know the difference between Shi’ites and Sunnis! (He actually thought they were separate from “Mooslims”.) Yet he presumes to be able to choose leaders and run the area through his chosen satrap.
What unbelievable arrogance!
Report thisBy cyrena, August 26, 2007 at 12:47 pm #
#97001 by TAO Walker on 8/26 at 12:23 pm
You got it TAO!! Hit it right on, I’d say. And no, you’re right that Ann Wright is not questioned, nor does she offer the suggestion that all of us are equally at fault, for allowing ourselves to be so dumbed-down.
However, I’ve certainly suggested that myself, at least in the the past 7 years. Matter of fact, I’ve been yelling at full speed. I think it’s worked for some. Others will never get it. Americans, overall, (at least the Anglos) are for the most part, very politically lazy and apathetic. They don’t get involved, and haven’t bothered to learn how their government is set up, or what their responsibilities are. That’s the way the way the system was designed, when they first used it to wipe out most of the original Americans like you.
We should just call ‘em the Holocausters. They create them wherever they go, and that’s been pretty much everywhere.
As for Ann Wright though, she’s such an activist herself, that she may not notice what we all see as that laziness, because she’s always in the mix, and trying to get things done.
She is to be admired.
Thanks for the history lesson.
Report thisBy TAO Walker, August 26, 2007 at 12:23 pm #
This old Savage has elsewhere on this site noted the U.S military’s use of “Indian Country” as its pejorative-of-choice for “unsecured” areas of Iraq....Fallujah (Paolo, #96990), for just one outrageous example. Now Cyrena (#96970) links us to a Truthout interview that reveals yet another dimension of the longtime American entrapment in the festering cesspool of its “Indian Policy.”
When gold was “discovered” in the Paha Sapa (Black Hills) the U.S. government withheld food and other things “guaranteed” by treaty to the Lakota People, in a vain effort to force them into ceding the Sacred Black Hills (reserved “in perpetuity” to The People by the same treaty) to the privateering classes who own and run “the land of opportunism.” This is but one of many instances of such criminal behavior, continuing up to the present day in actual Indian Country, on both Turtle and Hummingbird Islands.
Now, the interviewee confirms, these same gangbangers are withholding “reconstruction” money promised to the people of Iraq, as these pirates try to extort from its supposed-to-be “puppet” government the surrender (to mostly Anglo/American private interests) of that country’s substantial oil resources. She isn’t asked and doesn’t say whether theamericanpeople are fully complicit in this rampage of rape, ruin and murder carried-out by their ruling classes under the auspices, and at the expense (in blood and treasure), of this selfsame semi-comatose subject/citizenry. The Pyramid Scheme set up under the U.S. CONstitution, however, leaves no room for doubt on that score.
That “Amerika” is deathly ill is as obvious today as it has always been to us Free Wild Natural People here, and as it is at last becoming widely acknowledged everywhere else. Nations and Peoples around the world are already doing what they can to try and minimize the impacts upon themselves of what are likely to be the cataclysmic consequences of this latter day empire’s terminal throes. Yet they are all terribly handicapped by their own participation in the global criminal enterprise of which the americans are the dumbed-down driving force....though not (as they themselves like to think) the guiding principals.
So it is not only americans but all the civilized peoples who are in mortal danger from their own unbridled excesses....who are all suffering from the same lethal sickness. It is a law of Nature, though, that for every malady there is a remedy, and this domestication disease is no exception.
It is us surviving Ickche Wichasha scattered all around the Earth who ARE the medicine for what ails Humanity here in these “interesting times.” We will be, for our captive Sisters and Brothers, a “bitter pill” to swallow. Continuing to search for a cure inside the confines of the contraption they call “civilization,” however, can only prove to be a fatal exercise in F-U-tility.
So what’ll it be?
HokaHey!
Report thisBy Paolo, August 26, 2007 at 9:16 am #
Comment by “Lilmamzer”:
“The US did not blow Iraq to hell - the Sunnis and Shia are doing that well enough on their own.”
I think the residents of Fallujah, a city of several hundred thousand that we reduced to smoking ruins, would disagree about the US not blowing Iraq to hell.
I think residents of Baghdad, whose infrastructure (such as power and sanitation plants) was deliberately targeted during the bombing campaign, would also disagree.
The hundred thousand or so Iraqis killed during our illegal invasion and occupation would also disagree (if they were still alive).
We did in fact “blow Iraq to hell.”
Maliki has an impossible job: trying to run a country that was cobbled together by some British generals over a bottle of gin at the conclusion of World War One. Probably the only solution would be to break up the country into at least three sovereign states, but we’ve screwed things up so much, that might not work either.
Actually, we’ve messed things up so badly, there probably is no good solution.
Nice job, George.
Report thisBy Don Stivers, August 26, 2007 at 9:15 am #
We (The US)cannot blame the Iraqis for what is going on now in Iraq. The US invaded a stable country which was not a threat. The US dissolved the Iraqi military and any government which could have brought about some stability.
President Bush hides behind the “democratically” elected government that is now struggling to be effective so that he can avoid being held as a war criminal. What is a country to do that has had its government overthrown and then occupied by a foreign military force that is second to non? Of course they would try to create a new government. And because our military force was present, a “democratically” elected parliament was installed. That STILL does not erase the fact that the country was illegally invaded. Those responsible should be tried as criminals and if found guilty, punished. Like Saddam.
Even if Iraq becomes the shinning example of “democracy” in the middle east, it does NOT erase the fact that thousands have died and treasure has been lost. And at the whim of a President whose ego had to be stroked. Remember the flight suit on the aircraft carrier?
Report thisBy cyrena, August 26, 2007 at 3:49 am #
Have a look at this. It could explain a lot of things about the Maliki problem...what he’s been up against.
Now if I tried to writethis stuff, I’d be censored. (happens all of the time) But, this is coming from a respected professional, so maybe it will finally sink in.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082207J.shtml
Report thisBy Tony Wicher, August 25, 2007 at 4:50 pm #
Maliki is obviously becoming the Bush administration’s scapegoat, which is what happens to puppets at the end of losing wars. Maliki says he can find friends elsewhere, such as Tehran and Damascus. Wouldn’t you? Now he is likely to be assassinated like Diem in Vietnam. The parallels are eerie. These imperialist dinosaurs running things had to have another Vietnam war just to prove that if we had stayed another 40 years, we would have won. This shouldn’t be called Gulf War II, it should be Vietnam II. It feels like this war has been going on 40 years. The words have changed to make it more antiseptic. What now they call it a “surge”, the called “escalation” back in the 60’s.
Report thisBy Tony Wicher, August 25, 2007 at 4:45 pm #
Maliki is obviously becoming the Bush administration’s scapegoat, which is what happens to puppets at the end of losing wars. Maliki says he can find friends elsewhere, such as Tehran and Damascus. Wouldn’t you? Now he is likely to be assassinated like Diem in Vietnam. The parallels are eerie. It’s like these imperialist dinosaurs running things had to have another Vietnam war just to prove that if we had stayed another 40 years, we would have won. This shouldn’t be called Gulf War II, it should be Vietnam II. It feels like this has war been going on 40 years.
Report thisBy Peter RV, August 25, 2007 at 3:27 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
How do you replace the PM of a country who was elected by its parliament, when the occupier of that country is not satisfied with him? ( and don’t ask the stupid question ‘what right has the occupier to demand that, in the first place?’).
Report thisWell, there are two ways.
One is ,to bribe him that he leaves ‘voluntarily’.
The other is to assassinate him, blaming,of course, the ‘terrorists’.
I predict that Maliki will be assassinated very soon. The reasons are as follows:
First, Maliki is an honest man who has refused to hand the oil of his country over to the occupier who has destroyed it.
Second, he has praised Iran as helpful in solving Iraq’s mess.
Now, those two things are the absolute No-No’s for the democratic future we plan for that country.
Noori Maliki wont go quietly so our death squads will ‘take him out’ as our Man of God ,Pat Robertson would say.
Our President has already built his alibi, he has declared that he ‘trusts’ Maliki.
By purplewolf, August 25, 2007 at 12:28 pm #
# 96806 Cyrena:
Love the boy george name (how about gorge-a big empty space,or to overstuff oneself as with like say $$ mainly other peoples, and don’t forget the word gouge- to tear out or rip away, as in peoples rights and lives? Enough satire. Weedboys way of looking at things:I broke it,ani’t my fault, now it’s crap let’s throw it out and go on to the next one(IRAN) and start again.It’s my right,I’m the decider(destroyer). Weedboy was never responsible for anything worthwhile or good in his life to date. He is responsible for a lot of the bad things in this world however.
#96815 boggs:
Since there is no cure for a “MAD DOG”,the only answer is to put it down before it attacks another victim and infects the whole world.
Report thisBy lawlessone, August 25, 2007 at 11:16 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
If Bush doesn’t think the elected Iraq government is following orders or kowtowing often enough, why doesn’t he just jail or kill them like he usually does when he is bringing “peace, freedom and democracy” to the countries he invades? As he has observed many times, he don’t need no stinkin’ cooperation from anybody. He can just take what he and his fellow oil autocrats want.
Besides, Jesus’d kick Mohammad’s butt in a cage match and Jesus is Bush’s buddy.
Better yet, why doesn’t Bush just take over the Iraq government and run it personally? He could move his White House there or build a new bigger and better one from which to continue his “struggle for civilization.” Maybe call it the Green House in honor of the Green Zone. Of course, he would have to expand it since right now so much of it is within mortar distance. Maybe it would be the Green Bunker in an undisclosed location.
Once relocated, Bush could continue as President for life there once his last term is up here, assuming of course he plans to ever leave office here.
His personal touch over there no doubt would quickly solve everything. After all, his personal touch has worked so well for our own country. And, taking over power there, he wouldn’t even need his Republican moles on the Supreme Court to cheat for him. He can use the Blackwater company’s mercenary troops instead.
Say, wouldn’t it be a nice irony if either the Republican owned Blackwater or Halliburton companies renamed their troops the Republican Guard? That way when Iran is invaded, it would be the Republican Guard fighting the Republican Guard.
Report thisBy June, August 25, 2007 at 10:53 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
The US government’s penchant for pointing a finger of blame at everyone but itself reminds me of a very apropos Peanuts cartoon of several years back that I particularly treasured. Lucy is depicted roller-skating down the sidewalk. Charlie Brown is walking towards her. They pass each other without incident. Then some distance away, Lucy falls down
Report this-- and yells back at him, “Look what you made me do!”
Our government is merely a cartoon writ large, except that one finds laughing at it very difficult.
By PACRAT, August 25, 2007 at 10:16 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Of course, Maliki can’t be blamed for everything - after all the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds have been divied for thousands of years and a phony democracy imposed on them by an outside country won’t change matters.
Let’s feel sorry for the US troops who don’t know who the enemy is. And since Al Queda represents less than 12% of the “insurgents” and its members are one of the three groups, how can they possibly tell who might be a terrorist as opposed to an insurgent - insurgent against whom?
Let’s get out NOW!
Report thisBy boggs, August 25, 2007 at 3:53 am #
When has this administration ever stood and taken responsibility for anything they sponsored that turned out badly?
Report thisThis is the worst bunch we have ever been burdened with in Washington, they are so irresponsible that they LIE their way out of every situation. They are like a dreaded disease, that we have no antibiotic for. Their virus is making the whole world sick.
They are hell bent on destroying the country that we all loved. It is no longer recognizable as “America the Beautiful”.
By cyrena, August 25, 2007 at 1:48 am #
#96751 by Louise on 8/24 at 4:49 pm
Oh Louise, you do delight. Who indeed WAS that fool?
I think it’s the same person that another blogger mentioned, in talking about Colin Powell’s Pottery Barn example...If you break it, you own it, and you have to be responsible for repairing the damage.
Boy george interprets this as “I broke it, and it’s mine, so what’s taking you so long to fix it.” (or something like that. Close enough).
And of course that’s the way it’s always been with the Boy. He screws it up, and somebody else fixes it. Why should this be any different?
Report thisBy Michael Gass, August 25, 2007 at 1:06 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Maliki holds no responsibility? Why? Because he was installed as the puppet figure and it didn’t work out?
No puppet figure will work in Iraq. That doesn’t mean they are blameless. It just means that they hold the same blame as our government and our CIA that helped put the ineffective people into power.
You don’t hold the driver of the get-a-way car blameless simply because he wasn’t doing the actual robbing… yet… we should hold the puppet Maliki blameless because?
When people start learning to live in reality… I’ll start taking these blogs more seriously.
Report thisBy rabid rabbi s from jizrael - Part 4, August 24, 2007 at 9:54 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Also it took some efforts by the ZIONISTIC MERCINARIES to bomb and attack to give the perception of an war to all to get the civil war like situation going, brother you need to dig in deeper befpore you keep opening your dumb beak. AND About te maliki govt, if you were in charge and loads died everyday, even you would revolt to the USA. lilmamzer, you talk too stupid, shows your ZIONISTIC ROOTS, you see i learned that all one can get from the ZIONISTS is LIES, LIES, MORE LIES, BIGGER LIES AND THEN PATRIOTIC LIES BUT NO TRUTH AT ALL, thanks for living up to your ZIONISTIC REPUTATION.
Report thisPEOPLE PLEASE BOYCOTT EVERYTHING ZIONISTIC & EVERYTHING ISRAELI, only FOR THE SAKE OIF HUMANITY & FOR THE SAKE OFPEACE. AND STOP SUPPORTING THE WARMONGERING GENOCIDAL ZIONISTIC MANIACS LIKE BU$H & , of course , lilmamzer.
By rabid rabbi s from jizreal _ part 3, August 24, 2007 at 9:53 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Citizens of certain “pathetic” 3rd world countries, who have nonzionist and honest newspapers do get the real news, and they kind of laugh at the US approach of plundering in the name of “Freedom” & “Democracy” (while praying for shelter from GOD against the US EVIL) they do laff at the HYPOCRITIC ACTIONS OF THE “WEST”. THOUGH THESE ACTIONS ARE GENOCIDALLY DANGEROUS BUT THE CONVICTION & THE WORDS USED IN GWB SPEECHES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A REAL GOOD JOKE.
YES, of course MALIKI will be replaced sooner or later and he will be facing problems covertly introduced by USA. BUT this whole experience witnessed by the IRAQIs (of IRAQIs trying to bend over backwards to appease the USA DEMANDS just so as to stay alive in IRAQ has added to their bitter experience of USA.)
ALSO everyone knows that when the attack started USA sent in troops straight to the oil fields and the oil ministry, as they were intrested only in stealing the IRAQI oil for the ZIONIST CORPORATIONS, & MAYBE SOME OF YOU MIGHT KNOW THAT IRAQI people were never helped or assisted in any way by the USA except for being shot, Harassed, imprisonned, tortured and poisonned by radioactive Uranium or MK77. SO MUCH FOR THE EVIDENT AMERICAN CONCERN FOR THE GOOD OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE. AND NOW THE SELF-DECLARED CHAMPION OF “FREEDOM” OR “DEMOCRACY” OR “LIBERTY” WANTS TO CHANGE IRAQI GOVT “FOR THE BETTER OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE”. EVIDENTLY IGNORING THE FACT THAT “DEMOCRACY” MEANS THE CHOICE OF THE “LOCAL PEOPLE” AND NOT THE BLOOD SUCKING IMPERIALIST USA, UK & ISRAEL.
MALIKI ( being an IRAQI) is trying his best to avoid the further plunder and pillage of IRAQ. BUT CAN ONE CHALLENGE THE BIG DEVIL HIMSELF WHILE THE BIG DEVIL INFESTS THE RESIDENCE? nopes, not really.
IRAQIs and MALIKI are in deep deep American issued problems, and soon to come IRAN etc will be in the same boat. and many more to follow ....
While Americans MOURN 3800 or so Mercinaries who died in IRAQ trying to allow ZIONIST CORPORATIONS to steal OIL to sell in north America for a PRICE, on the other side the IRAQIs mourn atleast 1 MILLION DEAD AND ATLEAST 4 MILLION who had to evacuate due to US PRESENCE.
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yo, lilmamzer, ( the sneaky little lying ZIONIST paid ministry of propaganda stooge ) SADDAM was able to control everything, like hold the various minorities in balance ( NOTE THAT there was no massive genocides of people amounting to millions, as in the case of thre AMEROZIONIST invasion, ALSO NOTE that for SADDAMs genocide he was ADVISED by,provided intelligence satellite reports by & PROVIDED CHEMICAL WEAPONS BY THE GOVT OF “good ol’ USofA” who was tripping over herself trying to get the IRANIs beaten to crap by the IRAQIs, need I remind your ZIONIST BLEAKMIND MORE?) you say saddam had no legitimacy, well he had been elected by the people over and over again and there is still people willing to die for his IDEALS & IN CASE YOU NEVER NOTICED ALL IRAQIs miss the GOOD OLD SADDAM DAYS, THANKS FOR YOUR ZIONIST HELP,MATE. GO TO IRAQ & TRY TALKING TO PEOPLE THERE INSTEAD of just doling out propaganda like usual. and bro if JIZREAL CAN BE LEAD BY GENOCDIAL ZIONISTS, what is so bloody wrong about IRAQ being lead by Baathist, in case you never noticed, the BAATHIST are no where near as much GENOCIDAL as the ZIONISTS, READ THE NONZIONISTS NEWSPAPERS TOO.
By rabid rabbi s from jiszreal -part 2, August 24, 2007 at 9:33 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
ALSO everyone knows that when the attack started USA sent in troops straight to the oil fields and the oil ministry, as they were intrested only in stealing the IRAQI oil for the ZIONIST CORPORATIONS, & MAYBE SOME OF YOU MIGHT KNOW THAT IRAQI people were never helped or assisted in any way by the USA except for being shot, Harassed, imprisonned, tortured and poisonned by radioactive Uranium or MK77. SO MUCH FOR THE EVIDENT AMERICAN CONCERN FOR THE GOOD OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE. AND NOW THE SELF-DECLARED CHAMPION OF “FREEDOM” OR “DEMOCRACY” OR “LIBERTY” WANTS TO CHANGE IRAQI GOVT “FOR THE BETTER OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE”. EVIDENTLY IGNORING THE FACT THAT “DEMOCRACY” MEANS THE CHOICE OF THE “LOCAL PEOPLE” AND NOT THE BLOOD SUCKING IMPERIALIST USA, UK & ISRAEL.
Report thisMALIKI ( being an IRAQI) is trying his best to avoid the further plunder and pillage of IRAQ. BUT CAN ONE CHALLENGE THE BIG DEVIL HIMSELF WHILE THE BIG DEVIL INFESTS THE RESIDENCE? nopes, not really.
IRAQIs and MALIKI are in deep deep American issued problems, and soon to come IRAN etc will be in the same boat. and many more to follow ....
PLEASE STOP SUPPORTING WARMONGERING GENOCIDAL ZIONIST MANICS. FOR THE SAKE OF PEACE & HUMANITY. BOYCOTT EVERYTHING ZIONIST & ISRAELI.Once again of course its the “somebody else AND CERTAINLY NOT THE Americans” that is to BLAME. VERY typical of BU$H and his bunch of deadly CLOWNS. I mean, need i remind you that atleast ONE “DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED” governement of IRAQ was never allowed to be sworn in right after the ELECTION due to objections by BU$H & his BULLSHITTERS, the actual reason being that they had not anticipated that THAT ELECTED governement would turn out to be strongly ANTI-AMERICAN and very very PRO-SHIITE.
SO, SO MUCH FOR THE DEMOCRACY USA WISHES TO BRING, ACTUALLY WHAT USA CALLS “FREEDOM” OR “DEMOCRACY” is simply installing PRO-USA govts by FORCE and in such a way that USA IS able to ROB that NATION CONTINOUSLY afterwards ( the Americans might not share the same VIEW coz the USA ZIONIST MEDIA DOES ACTUALLY ALWAYS PAINT A SKEWED PICURE THAT IS WAY DIFFERNT FROM REALITY, BUT THE REALITY, UNFORTUNATELY, IS STILL BEING REPORTED BY THE NONZIONIST PRESS OF MOST NON-USA COUNTRIES so NON-USA people are way better and differently informed.) the USA has “EXPORTED” either “Freedom” or “Democracy” to Nicargua, Elsalvador, Vietnam, Korea, Sudan, Somalia, ............. IRAQ, Afghanistan, ......... sooner to come Pakistan, IRAN, SYRIA .........
So actually most people around the world actually know that “freedom” & “democracy” is just a label, or an excuse, used to attack and enslave other peoples & nations for the FINANCIAL BENEFITS OF THE ZIONIST CORPORATIONS. USA rejected the earlier ELECTED PRO-SHIITE govt out right, right after the ELECTIONS, coz they knew that those people will never SUCCUMB TO USA DESIGNS TO ALLOW THE IRAQI PLUNDER. And now there are same fears from the stooge called Maliki who has had enough of the USA interference in the oil business and the indifference to the good of IRAQI people, Maliki seeks NEIGHBOURLY HELP FROM PEOPLE MORE SINCERE, HONEST AND RELIABLE than AMERICANS ( LESSON LEARNT BY the IRAQIs via recent American Exposure & EXPERIENCE). which again is NO-NO, a move beyond the US PERMISIONS in THE REGION, and THE US SIMPLY WILL NOT ALLOW IT coz it would mean FINANCIAL Losses to the ZIONIST CORPORATIONS (who gives a ratsass whether the IRAQIs live or die, better still let them all be dead so that the stealing of oil and the genocide is complete.) they would rather try and replace the Govt they rigged in THAN LOSE THE WHOLE COUNTRY ( WHICH WILL EVENTUALLY HAPPEN, AS IT DID HAPPEN IN EVERY OTHER US MILITARY ADVENTURE).
By rabid rabbi s from jizreal _ Part 1, August 24, 2007 at 9:29 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Once again of course its the “somebody else AND CERTAINLY NOT THE Americans” that is to BLAME. VERY typical of BU$H and his bunch of deadly CLOWNS. I mean, need i remind you that atleast ONE “DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED” governement of IRAQ was never allowed to be sworn in right after the ELECTION due to objections by BU$H & his BULLSHITTERS, the actual reason being that they had not anticipated that THAT ELECTED governement would turn out to be strongly ANTI-AMERICAN and very very PRO-SHIITE.
Report thisSO, SO MUCH FOR THE DEMOCRACY USA WISHES TO BRING, ACTUALLY WHAT USA CALLS “FREEDOM” OR “DEMOCRACY” is simply installing PRO-USA govts by FORCE and in such a way that USA IS able to ROB that NATION CONTINOUSLY afterwards ( the Americans might not share the same VIEW coz the USA ZIONIST MEDIA DOES ACTUALLY ALWAYS PAINT A SKEWED PICURE THAT IS WAY DIFFERNT FROM REALITY, BUT THE REALITY, UNFORTUNATELY, IS STILL BEING REPORTED BY THE NONZIONIST PRESS OF MOST NON-USA COUNTRIES so NON-USA people are way better and differently informed.) the USA has “EXPORTED” either “Freedom” or “Democracy” to Nicargua, Elsalvador, Vietnam, Korea, Sudan, Somalia, ............. IRAQ, Afghanistan, ......... sooner to come Pakistan, IRAN, SYRIA .........
So actually most people around the world actually know that “freedom” & “democracy” is just a label, or an excuse, used to attack and enslave other peoples & nations for the FINANCIAL BENEFITS OF THE ZIONIST CORPORATIONS. USA rejected the earlier ELECTED PRO-SHIITE govt out right, right after the ELECTIONS, coz they knew that those people will never SUCCUMB TO USA DESIGNS TO ALLOW THE IRAQI PLUNDER. And now there are same fears from the stooge called Maliki who has had enough of the USA interference in the oil business and the indifference to the better of IRAQI people, Maliki seeks NEIGHBOURLY HELP FROM PEOPLE MORE SINCERE, HONEST AND RELIABLE than AMERICANS ( LESSON LEARNT BY the IRAQIs via recent American Exposure & EXPERIENCE). which again is NO-NO, a move beyond the US PERMISIONS in THE REGION, and THE US SIMPLY WILL NOT ALLOW IT coz it would mean FINANCIAL Losses to the ZIONIST CORPORATIONS (who gives a ratsass whether the IRAQIs live or die, better still let them all be dead so that the stealing of oil and the genocide is complete.) they would rather try and replace the Govt they rigged in THAN LOSE THE WHOLE COUNTRY ( WHICH WILL EVENTUALLY HAPPEN, AS IT DID HAPPEN IN EVERY OTHER US MILITARY ADVENTURE). Citizens of certain “pathetic” 3rd world countries, who have nonzionist and honest newspapers do get the real news, and they kind of laugh at the US approach of plundering in the name of “Freedom” & “Democracy” (while praying for shelter from GOD against the US EVIL) they do laff at the HYPOCRITIC ACTIONS OF THE “WEST”. THOUGH THESE ACTIONS ARE GENOCIDALLY DANGEROUS BUT THE CONVICTION & THE WORDS USED IN GWB SPEECHES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A REAL GOOD JOKE.
YES, of course MALIKI will be replaced sooner or later and he will be facing problems covertly introduced by USA. BUT this whole experience witnessed by the IRAQIs (of IRAQIs trying to bend over backwards to appease the USA DEMANDS just so as to stay alive in IRAQ has added to their bitter experience of USA.)
By Louise, August 24, 2007 at 4:49 pm #
I sure am glad it wasn’t us that attacked Iraq and opened that Pandora’s box, or wouldn’t we sound like the biggest fools in the world demanding Iraq do something about the mess in their country?
The idiot who decided taking out Saddam was a good idea, should have listened to all the folks who tried to warn ... If you attack Iraq the place will blow up in your face! You may not like Saddam, but he’s the only leader Iraq’s had in their short history that’s been able to keep the lid on that box!
Who was that fool anyway?
Report thisBy lilmamzer, August 24, 2007 at 2:28 pm #
#96679 by Marjorie L. Swanson
The United States attacks, invades and blows a sovereign country to hell and now is blaming the Iraqi government for the problems.
The Hussein regime had no legitimacy. The concept of a sovereign Iraq being led by the genocidal Baathists is absurd.
The US did not blow Iraq to hell - the Sunnis and Shia are doing that well enough on their own.
The Maliki government is lame and they do shoulder a huge amount of blame.
Report thisBy VietnamVet, August 24, 2007 at 10:23 am #
Hey folks, I just came across this tidbit where the Australian Government now is admitting that their entry into the war ON Iraq WAS about oil. You can see it here:
http://www.energybulletin.net/31700.html
But, I don’t think we should expect any such admission from the Bushies, huh?
Report thisBy namvet67, August 24, 2007 at 8:32 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
The problem is that Maliki can’t force the US backed oil law down the throats of the Iraqi people. Who ever can get that oil law signed will get the backing of Bush. And once we have control over their oil Bush will announce his political solutions to our military problems.
Report thisHoa binh
By JimBob, August 24, 2007 at 8:11 am #
The current push to blame Maliki and perhaps replace him with someone else ("Let’s give Mr. Allawi some time—at least a few years—to prove that we’ve been right all along,”—GWB) is just another attempt to drag this thing on until it can be dumped in someone else’s lap.
IMPEACH!
Report thisBy felicity, August 24, 2007 at 8:07 am #
OK. Maliki’s the problem - give him the boot. But leave George in place?
It amazes me that the same people who insist that Maliki should go because he and he alone is the problem in Iraq are blind to the reality that Bush should go because he and he alone is the problem in the US.
Geez, the Iraqis can stage an election next week and get Maliki booted themselves. Why can’t we Americans hold an election next week and get George booted? Maybe it’s about time we took a good hard look at our presidential system of government - maybe before we become an absolute monarchy?
Report thisBy Marjorie L. Swanson, August 24, 2007 at 7:36 am #
The United States attacks, invades and blows a sovereign country to hell and now is blaming the Iraqi government for the problems. If we had any honesty we would all be very ashamed.
Report thisBy THOMAS BILLIS, August 24, 2007 at 4:47 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
EJ it is the blame the Iraqi’s strategy in its nascent form.All other arguements require and American public that would chose to be informed.This one is easy.We did all we could but those damn Iraqi’s just do not want to be free.To some degree as you say that was the strategy in Vietnam.Those damn Vietnamese people just do not want to be free.If only the Iraqi’s would stabilize their government and give us unfettered access to their oil fields everything would be fine.But if they do not it is not our fault it is those damn dictator loving Iraqi’s.
Report thisBy Douglas Chalmers, August 24, 2007 at 2:40 am #
#Quote E.J. Dionne: “Maybe Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki should just enter our primaries next year and Americans could vote up or down on whether he should remain in office....”
Now, that’s a good idea! The “vulture-in-a-suit” turned out to be a lot more diplomatic than imagined but his words this week certainly floored Bush and a few others who flit in and out of Washington. Perhaps he could be invited to a media candidates’ appearance and put his views along with Clinton and Kucinich??? Great to see you on YouTube, Nouri, you can “beat Condi’s brains out”, now, ha ha!
#Quote E.J. Dionne: “Bush compared Iraq to Vietnam this week...”
The hell, eh? He had a damn cheek trying that out on everyone. Is he also trying to achieve the same “kill” of US troops in Iraq, too? As it is, we have already seen the “Cambodian-ization” of the “Vietnam-ization” of the fake war (another imperialist invasion) in Iraq and Afghanistan. What about when Pakistan turns into a conflagration as a result as well? Truthdig also has a cheek bringing up Vietnam after deleting my comments-in-reply on the history of the US in the Pacific and in Asia in the Hiroshima blog last week.
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