Sunday, June 03, 2012

Hejira

Aswat al-Iraq gets the dumbo prize for the day as it 'reports' on a new poll.  When you report a poll, the first thing you do is include the margin of error.  If you fail to do that, there's no point in even looking at the alleged results.

Despite that failure, we'll go ahead and jump into the nonsense.  The you-never-heard-of-em-before NGO "Al-Faidh Center for Public Opinion and Social studies" insists they polled all of Iraq -- all areas!!! -- and "63.5% of 10,000 citizens" regject a no-confidence vote.  Aswat al-Iraq -- especially now that it wants to be a for-pay-site -- needs to grasp that the most important figure isn't given in their 'report' -- margin of error.  In addition, this is ridiculous on its face and you had to be real idiot to swallow it to begin with.  Nouri is so unpopular that US taxpayer money was used to pimp a false poll.  We called it out here and only one outlet was stupid enough to run with that 'poll.'

Nouri al-Maliki has been prime minister since 2006.  Iraq still needs potable water, still needs electricity more than 6 hours a day (especially in the summer), has huge unemployment, has Nouri torturing and disappearing people and all the  demands the protesters made in 2011 were ignored by Nouri.  There is no way in the world that he could even be at 50% approval.  More than likely, the Iraqi attitude would be "a plague on both your houses" and that would be aimed at Nouri and at the Parliament.

Alsumaria reports a Nineveh Province armed assault on a retired army officer that claimed his life and left his son injured, Ali Yasin Mahmoud was shot dead as he left his Mosul home, a Nineveh Province roadside bombing left a female injured, 2 people were killed in a Salahuddin Province explosion, and 1 corpse was discovered in Kirkuk (shot dead, Ministry of Commerce employee).

He can't deliver basic services and he can't deliver security?  He turned his back  on the political party Dawa (angering it and its members) and he's immensely popular.  Yeah.  That's believable. 


Al Rafidayn offers a lengthy article on claims by a State of Law MP about the political crisis.  The crisis is over a year and a half old.  The sudden 'discovery' of it by State of Law is laughable.  If Nouri wants to end the crisis, the answer's clear: Implement the Erbil Agreement.

This is not confusing, this is not new.  He agreed to the Erbil Agreement to get a second term as prime minister (after his State of Law did not come in first in the March 2010 elections).  Once he got his second term, he broke the contract and refused to honor it.  The only reason the other blocs agreed to let him have the second term is because the US puts its reputation on the line and swore that the agreement would be honored.  But the US government is clearly more comfortable lying to Iraq and that's why you get threats against the Kurds and silence on the agreement that the US vouched for.

You need to grasp that the entire region realizes that the US negotatiated the Erbil Agreement and vouched for it.  And they watch as the US walks away from it.  Refuses to back it.  And you really think anyone in the governments of Syria, Lebanon, etc. are going to take the US government's word right now?  You really think being a known liar helps in any negotiations with Syria?

There's no mystery to this crisis. If Nouri wants to end the crisis, he needs to implement the Erbil Agreement.  His failure to do so caused the crisis.



I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name

The number of US military people killed in the Iraq War stands at  4488.
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Isaiah did two comics this weekend, Saturday's "The Jobs Report" and Sunday's "The Shooting Range."
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