Parliament to take up Shiite Federal Region
US Backs off Criticism of Barzani
On Wednesday morning a car bomb in the Qahira district of Baghdad killed 8 and wounded 38.
Civil war violence killed some 25 on Tuesday, including 3 US GIs.
The US embassy in Iraq began by appearing to condemn the decree issued by Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani that the Iraqi national flag not be flown in Iraqi Kurdistan. But then in its second communique on the subject on Tuesday, it said
' "Decisions on Iraq's national symbols must be made by the Iraqi people as a whole through an established constitutional process," adding that Washington was committed to "Iraq's unity and territorial integrity".
In the revised statement, the embassy did not give any explanation for deleting parts of the original statement. '
The Iraqi parliament opened its fall session. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the Shiite leader, is pushing for recognition of a 9-province regional confederacy or super-province for the Shiites of the south. I figure at most he has 63 Shiite votes for it and probably can depend on 58 Kurdish MPs. That is 121, and you need 138 for a simple majority. The idea is strongly opposed by the Sunni Arabs, by the movement of Muqtada al-Sadr, and by the Da'wa Party. The latter two are part of the United Iraqi Alliance, as is al-Hakim's SCIRI, but they disgree vehemently on this issue.
Since 98 parliamentarians were missing today, however, and absenteeism is a big problem, it is hard to predict the outcome of such a vote on any particular day.
posted by Juan Cole @ 9/06/2006 12:20:00 AM
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3 Comments:
Several dawa and sadri MP's will vote FOR federalism, contrary to the party line. I think when pilgrims get shot by sunni snipers in well planned hate attacks, or when sunnis actually go so far as to rent out a room in Sadr city for no other reason than to blow the damn place up, then the shia start to think twice about 'unity'™, and start to think about all that lovely oil in the south.
"We Can't Leave" is not A Plan To Win The War.
Rather, it is a Republican Talking Point to prolong the Bush Administration's political policy of "Bleed & Borrow" vs the false choice, "Cut & Run" plastered on the Democratic Party ~ whether they support a military solution to the problem of "terrorism" or not ~ and all other opponents of the IRAQ War = the AngloAmerican Occupation, worldwide.
The Prize = OIL is certainly the agenda of many crony capitalists...
...indeed the conceit implicit of "The Strategic Ellipse" geopolitik is the notion of PEAK OIL, n'est-ce pas?
One would think that news such as Major U.S. oil discovery in Gulf of Mexico, as well as progress in alternative energy generation : conservation would defuse this Casus belli ~ but it does not.
in my humble opinion, this is because the politics of FEAR and WAR MONGERING serve those who aspire to achieve and sustain political power, not necessarily petroleum power.
i cannot accept the notion that, "it's all about OIL," thus. it's about power, period.
I fail to see how US citizens are paying for control of the strategic Ellipse when they receive their tax returns.
It is more accurate saying US soldiers are paying with their blood.
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