On the front page of the New York Times, Thom Shanker's "Iraq Defense Minister Sees Need For U.S. Security Help Until 2018" appears -- so it will get a mention or two -- if only a sentence -- from those who don't carry their weight on Iraq because they've turned over their alleged left outlets to the Barack Obama campaign. Abdul Qadir is the defense minister.
There is a difference and it's a big one.
Bully Boy's private arrangement with puppet of the occupation al-Maliki is that the UN extends the mandate that allows US forces in Iraq for one more year and it's the last UN mandate. After that, for the illegal war to continue, the puppet (which may not be al-Maliki, puppets get replaced) will 'ask' the US to stay, each year, for as long as needed.
That's the sort of thing the left media could have tackled but ignored.
al-Maliki has sidestepped the Iraqi Parliament. The time before, he ignored the Iraqi Constution which required the approval of Parliament and just made his own little deal with the UN -- which also ignored the constitution of Iraq and that gets left out. The United Nations doesn't have to go along with al-Maliki. But they did. The Parliament was enrgaged (rightly) and they made it very clear that the Constitution would be followed.
But left media had somewhere else to go -- as it always does.
The Congress should have been outraged. Bully Boy can't make treaties on his own. There were a few grumbles and rumbles after they realized what was going on -- apparently stemming more from the fact that the US Constitution was being violated and not to much concern with regards to the Iraq War -- but those vanished.
Since then you've seen the puppet's cabinet (and the puppet itself) make comments repeatedly indicating a long US presence.
Shanker leaves that recent history out of the picture so well he could probably get a job at The Nation tomorrow if he wanted it. (Female correspondents for the Times would not, of course, be so lucky -- 2007 featured 491 male bylines in The Nation, 149 female bylines.) He does note that, "Pentagon officials expressed no surprise at Mr. Qadir's projections, which were even less optimistic than those he made last year."
No, it's not a surprise at all. But while the Bambi chasers in 'left' and 'independent' media have flung their BVDs and panties as they screamed in sort of Bambimania, Iraq's fallen off the radar. You don't care about praising guitar work when your Dream Crush doesn't play an instrument. And when your Dream Crush is a candidate who is a War Hawk, you're not overly interested in Iraq -- except of course to be sure to always push the factoid that, in 2002, Bambi spoke out against the "dumb" war and act as if it begins and end there.
On Saturday, Suleiman al-Khalidi (Reuters) reported the following:
Iraq hopes to conclude by July a pact with the United States that lays the basis for long-term strategic ties between the two countries and defines the legal status of U.S. troops, Iraq's foreign minister said on Saturday.
Hoshiyar Zebari said technical talks would be launched in Baghdad later this month on the alliance that lays the basis of ties once the one-year extension of the U.N. authorization for the U.S.-led forces in Iraq expires at the end of 2008.
Inside the paper, Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Abeer Mohammed offer "Judge and U.S.-Linked Sunni Fighters Are Killed" which tells you Judge Amir Jawdat al-Naeeb was Sunni, "in his 60s" and speaks to some who knew him. Imagine a judge assassinated in the US, shot down in nation's capital, would that be news? The New York Times offers more than most today and of course Little Media always has other things to do. The reporters note:
The attack appeared to be part of a longstanding campaign by militants to kill doctors, professors, lawyers and other professionals.
Here's Ned Parker (Los Angeles Times) in full on the assassination of a judge (so unimportant, it's buried in a long, long story):
In west Baghdad, a high-ranking judge was assassinated by gunmen, police and hospital sources said. Judge Amer Jawdat Naib, who sat on the national appeals court, and his driver were killed by machine-gun fire after seven gunmen in two cars blocked their vehicle, police said. The shooting took place near two Iraqi army checkpoints.
Many Iraqi judges and lawyers have been assassinated since 2003 as armed groups have sought to destroy the country's professional classes.
Morning entry delayed due to the fact that e-mails insisted something be addressed. Had this gone up on its own this morning, more e-mails would have come in asking when it would be addressed. In parody form, Ava and I tackle that topic in the next entry. It's been dealt with. I may or may not do an Iraq snapshot today. Ava, Kat and I are on the road. I'm still sick and we gave up the only hour we had (Ava and I) 'free' today to write that parody.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
thom shanker
the new york times
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