The Common Ills: All this just to create a new Saddam

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

All this just to create a new Saddam

April 30th, Iraq held parliamentary elections. Yesterday, preliminary results were announced. Today? Abdulrahman al-Rashed (Al Arabiya) offers, "Maliki, whose bloc won most of the votes, needs the support of more than 60 other members of parliament to become premier again. If Maliki makes it to the premiership, his term would be the second longest after Saddam Hussein. Maliki is expected to resume running the country on his own and adopting the policy of dominance. This will thus eliminate the state institutional system the Americans pledged to establish."

The US invaded Iraq, broke the law, killed millions, lost some of their own and all to create a new Saddam Hussein?

Nouri's third term only becomes a done deal if the US government demands it (as they demanded his first term and his second). The results -- preliminary -- aren't impressive. Nouri's where he was in 2010 more or less. And his 2010 results weren't considered impressive that year.

Rudaw quotes Nineveh Governor Atheel al-Nujaifi stating, "I am not against the State of Law, but against the continuation of Maliki in power. His continuation in power is a big threat to Iraq."

Meanwhile, World News Bulletin reports:

Former Iraqi premier Ayad Allawi's political bloc on Tuesday demanded that parliamentary polls – results of which were officially announced yesterday – be repeated, claiming that the vote was rigged.
"There were many cases of vote-rigging and other violations," Entessar Allawi, a spokesperson for the former PM's Wataniya bloc, told Anadolu Agency.

They should complain. Nouri did it in 2010, demanded a recount and was tossed a few seats to shut him up. So Allawi and others should be demanding a recount as well.

It's not as though democratic elections took place anyway. Not when Nouri used the military to close the polling stations in areas hostile to him. They turned away voters all morning and only allowed voters in because the press got wind of it and began reporting on it.

The Iraqi press, of course. The western media is far too timid to report much of anything that angers thug Nouri.

Certainly, they don't want to report on his War Crimes as he continues to bomb residential neighborhoods of Falluja. Today, those bombings claimed the lives of 4 civilians and left another five injured.

In other violence, National Iraqi News Agency reports Joint Operations Command states they killed 38 suspects in Amiriyat al-Falluja, an Alexandria car bombing left two people injured, an al-Baghdadi car bombing left four federal police members injured, a Baiji suicide bomber took his own life and the lives o 3 Iraqi soldiers (five more were injured), a Baquba sticky bombing left a father and son injured, 1 man was shot dead in front of his Mosul home, Samara Operations Command announced they killed 5 suspects, and a Zankurh bombing killed 4 people.

The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley, Jake Tapper, Susan's On the Edge, Jane Fonda. Pacifica Evening News and the Guardian -- updated: