All Iraq News reports that National Alliance MP Wael Abdul Latif is calling for the political crisis to be resolved by a majority government. Ibrahim al-Jaafari is the head of the National Alliance. Al Rafidayn reports that al-Jaafari met with US Ambassador Robert Beecroft yesterday and that the two addressed the political stalemate but al-Jaafari spoke of continued dialogue, not a majority goverment. The National Alliance can't even get on the same page for public consumption but all the political blocs are going to be able to come together to resolve the crisis?
Nouri al-Maliki has long wanted a majority government. US General Ray Odierno saw that desire and warned the US government about it but US Ambassador Chris The Nit Wit Hill said Odierno was wrong. Hill then got the White House to refuse to allow Odierno to speak to the media. Because they are so incompetent, the White House not only nominated the idiot Hill to be ambassador but they failed to grasp that Hill had no clue what was going on in Iraq. It would be months before they realized what was going on. During those months, they ignored Odierno and shut him out of the process. Had Odierno been listened to, the will of the Iraqis and the Iraqi Constitution might have been followed.
People like Chris Hill don't give a damn about democracy or equality -- something parents of college students now exposed to that menace should know. They want short cuts. They don't take their jobs seriously. Their whole point is: How do I make my day easier for me today.
And his hostility towards Iraq was known. The administration was warned. By the military, by embassy employees, but the White House knew best.
A majority government -- which Odierno warned against -- would mean that the Sunnis and others were shut out. Unlike Hill, Odierno realized the importance of getting the Iraqi people to buy-in on their government. What Nouri wants to do is ram through a government that is not representative. This is the White House screw up and they refuse to address it.
They never should have backed Nouri. They did despite the fact that his State of Law came in second to Iraqiya. Grasp that. Grasp that Nouri's 'majority' government would sideline Iraqiya, the political slate that won the most seats in the Parliament.
It takes a real idiot to take the Iraq that Bully Boy Bush tore apart and make things worse.
Ammar al-Hakim heads the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq -- because his father died, he heads the group now. Wasn't ready for the task obviously. All Iraq News notes that not only did he make that delcaration, he also did so at morning prayers and used the opportunity to also lash out at the Saudi Newspaper he's been attacking all week. What a sad and tiny man Ammar al-Hakim is. Alsumaria notes his latest war of words with the Saudi newspaper here.
Al Mada reports that Nouri al-Maliki is calling for the spirit of Eid al-Adha to lead the political blocs to create a better atmosphere for a national conference. Nouri's long opposed such a conference. When he supports it, he's usually working to destroy it. History would indicate that's what's happening behind the scenes right now. He also wants people to "discard their differences." Like their differences over the Erbil Agreement?
When Nouri failed to win a second term as prime minister as a result of State of Law coming in second in the March 2010 elections, the White House negotiated a contract -- the Erbil Agreement -- during the 8 months that Nouri dug in his heels and refused to allow a new prime minister to be named. The contract gave Nouri a second term in exchange for Nouri agreeing to implement Article 140, agreeing to create an independent national security commission and more.
Nouri signed the contract, agreed to it, gladly took his second term as prime minister and then trashed the agreement, refused to honor the contract.
That's what caused the current stalemate.
If and when Nouri gets serious about ending it, he'll stop calling for people to forget 'past differences' and announce instead that he is implementing the contract all the political bloc leaders signed.
Also getting attention from the Iraqi press today is a 114-year-old Iraqi woman. Al Mada notes she is said to be the oldest woman in Basra. She last saw a doctor in 1982 when she had a proecedure on her left eye. She was born in 1898 when Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire (British occupation). Alsumaria notes she had five children -- all of whoma re now dead with the last dying two years ago. She eats "fatty foods" and states she never watches TV or listens to the radio -- both of which were invented after she was born. In violence, AP notes an attack on a Buhriz checkpoint has left 2 police officers dead.
The following community sites -- plus On The Wilder Side, Antiwar.com, Adam Kokesh, Pacifica Evening News and the Guardian -- updated last night and this morning:
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
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