Iraq - Democracy in action

Email Print posted by MedfordTim 07/05/2008 10:55:10 PM EST

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But will the Bushies and their Iraqi partners allow Democracy to take hold in Iraq?

Shiite clergy want referendum over US troop presence

Iraq's Shiite leadership indicated Friday (Independence Day, y'all!) that it will press the Baghdad government to hold a national referendum on the issue of a further stationing of US forces in the country.

Imam Sadreddin al Kabandji said at the Friday prayers in the Shiite holy city of Najaf: 'The Iraqi nation regards with concern the Iraqi-American treaty whose contents are not exactly known.'

Notice the Imam knows it's a treaty even if our dumbass President tries to wiggle around it semantically.


'The treaty must be presented to the people and the clergy,' he demanded. It was unacceptable that the government was negotiating 'behind closed doors' with the Americans, al-Kbandji added.

His comments came as an original deadline for the treaty to be ready for signing by the end of July was approaching.

In a related news item...

Iraqi Shiites denounce security pact with US

Crowds: `No, no to colonisation! Out, out you occupier!'

Large crowds of Shiites on Friday denounced the security pact Baghdad is negotiating with Washington for a long-term US military presence in violence-wracked Iraq.

In Baghdad's Sadr City, the bastion of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Shiite men, women and children shouted anti-American slogans as they demonstrated against the security deal after the weekly Friday prayers.

"No, no to colonisation! Out, out you occupier!" the crowd shouted in the centre of Sadr City where fierce battles raged in March and April between Shiite militants and US forces in which hundreds of people were killed.

The fighting ended with a truce on May 10.


Crunch time is fast approaching. Will George be able to subvert the law yet again, or will the Iraqi people do what the spineless Democrats and the lockstep Republicans are supposed to? I'm glad someone was looking out for our Constitution on the Fourth...

I'll leave you with a little George Carlin just to make this weekend of Up With America! complete.
< Obama on FISA, not on Crack | Yet another casualty of Iraq...makes me sick... >
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Iraq - Democracy in action | 1 comment (1 topical, 0 hidden)
A shaky truce (none / 0)
What I hope is that the Iraqis can unite on this topic.  If they do that there may actually be hope that the fragile coalition they have formed will hold together.  It may not be the best arrangement we could hope for but it would be better than the whole thing shattering into a violent mess all over again.  I still think the primary issue of Shiite vs. Sunni is still up in the air and unresolved.

by bfaul on 07/06/2008 05:52:59 PM EST

Iraq - Democracy in action | 1 comment (1 topical, 0 hidden)
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