October 10th, Iraqis voted. Eight months and counting later and no president has been named and no prime minister-designate has been named. (The order is that the president is sworn in and then a prime minister-designate is named and the designate has 30 days to form a cabinet.)
No progress. An ongoing stalemate. Remember the US press applauding the election and shouting that Moqtada al-Sadr was a kingmaker? They based the claim of kingmaker on? Nothing. He's never demonstrated an ability to lead. In 2010, for example, he told his followers to vote in a post-election election -- and they did -- and that whomever they selected in that post-election poll is who he would back for prime minister. Then the government of Iran got a hold of him and he backed off of the desires of his followers and instead backed Nouri al-Maliki -- as the Iranian government told him to. He darted in and out of Iraq for years -- usually when the bench warrant for him was supposed to be finally acted on. When he did return and stayed in Iraq, he began to attempt to be seen as a populist and some came around to him and some new supporters were added to his already existing cult. But Moqtada can't run from his past and he is forever exposing himself. Such as when The October Revolution kicked off and he initially supported it -- because it was so popular among Shi'ites -- and then he pulled his support and then he lost support and his cult again went back to the basic numbers. He tried to extend his support back to the protesters but they weren't having it. Then he tried to insist that women and girls should not be allowed to be part of the protests and that they should be segregated by gender. This led to the protesters mocking him.
The US press refused to cover this reality in real time or since. And that may be why we still get foolish people e-mailing the public account to explain that Moqtada is beloved and that it was /Sunnis who were mocking him and that the Sunni youth never liked him which is why they mocked him for his instructions regarding gender.
If you take the time to e-mail this site -- especially repeatedly -- to say that about The October Revolution, I really don't know what to say.
You're not just foolish, you're stupid. Yes, the US press has washed its hands of Iraq. They used the 2008 election of Barack to do so wwith most outlets cutting their Baghdad desks -- ABC offered that if anything came up, they could cover it by rebroadcasting BBC reports, for example.
But if you're so damn sure of something and you're so wrong then you really are just stupid.
You don't know a damn thing about The October Revolution.
Maybe we need to do a brief overview for the grossly uninformed?
2010 saw an eight-month political stalemate following the March 2010 election. Nouri al-Maliki lost the election. He refused to step down. That wasn't surprising to many people. For example, US Gen Ray Odierno had been warning of that possibility ahead of Iraq's elections. The US press was more interested in promoting Nouri as a sure thing. Quil Lawrence was the worst. Ironically, his colleague Deborah Amos did the best analysis of that election -- but for Harvard's Joan Shorenstien Center on the Press, not for NPR. From [PDF format warning] "Confusion, Contradiction and irony: the Iraqi media in 2010:"
The
dramatic
conclusion
of
the
parliamentary
vote
also
played
out
on
Iraqi
TV
screens
when
Iraq’s
Prime
Minister,
Nouri
al‐
Maliki,
appeared
on
the
state‐run
broadcasting
service
to
announce
he
was
challenging
the
results.
Maliki’s
political
coalition
had
won
89
seats
in
parliament,
well
short
of
the
winning
formula
of
163
seats.
Maliki
refused
to
accept
that
an
alliance
led
by
challenger
Iyad
Allawi
had
won
more
parliamentary
seats
than
his
bloc
had.
These
two
Iraqi
politicians
shared
similar
backgrounds:
a
lifetime
of
working
to
overthrow
Saddam
Hussein,
membership
in
underground
political
organizations,
and
being
a
part
of
Iraq’s
majority
Shiite
community.
Each
had
returned
to
Iraq
when
the
Americ
an
military
toppled
Saddam.
But
in
the
2010
national
election,
they
had
taken
different
political
roads.
In
the
2010
campaign,
Maliki’s
party
was
primarily
a
sectarian
political
list
of
Shiite
candidates
with
a
few
Sunni
political
figureheads.
In
contrast,
Allawi’s
political
coalition
was
a
cross‐sectarian
list.
While
Allawi
is
a
Shiite,
he
headed
a
party
consisting
of
Sunni
political
leaders
from
western
and
northern
Iraq
and
some
Shiite
politicians
who
believed
it
was
time
to
move
beyond
sectarian
politics
if
Iraq
is
to
achieve
national
unity.
In
Iraq’s
short
history
of
free
elections,
Shiite
candidates
have
a
demographic
advantage.
Shiites
are
approximately
60%
of
the
population,
and
Iraqis
voted
almost
exclusively
along
sectarian
lines
in
the
2005
national
elections
and
the
2009
provincial
vote.
Maliki
also
had
a
media
advantage.
The
state‐run
national
news
network
did
not
accept
paid
campaign
advertisements,
but
freely
broadcast
extensive
reports
of
Maliki’s
election
appearances
and
campaign
speeches
in
evening
news
bulletins.
On
the
eve
of
the
vote,
state
TV
broadcast
a
documentary
highlighting
the
Prime
Minister’s
visit
to
security
checkpoints around
the
capital.
Maliki
is
widely
credited
with
an
improvement
in
the
day‐to‐day
security
in
the
capital
and
in
the
south,
but
his
pre‐election
inspection
of
the
security
checkpoints
was
seen
as
a
long
campaign
ad.
According
to
domestic
media
monitoring
reports
of
state
‐
run
television,
Al
‐
Iraqiya,
Maliki’s
political
coalition
received
by
far
the
“highest
positive
coverage”
when
compared
with
all
other
political
parties
in
the
campaign. When
it
came
to
the
vote,
Allawi
demonstrated
that
sectarian
voting
patterns
could
be
broken.
A
small
percentage
of
Shiites
voted
for
a
party
that
included
Sunnis
on
the
ticket
which
helped
deliver
the
two‐seat
lead. Prime
Minister
Maliki
charged
widespread
fraud
and
demanded
a
recount
to
prevent
“a
return
to
violence.”
He
pointedly
noted
that
he
remained
the
commander
in
chief
of
the
armed
forces.
Was
Maliki
threatening
violence?
Was
he
using
the
platform
of
state
‐
run
media
to
suggest
that
his
Shiite
‐
dominated
government
would
not
relinquish
power
to
a
Sunni
coalition
despite
the
election
results?
His
meaning
was
ambiguous,
but
his
choice
of
media
was
widely
understood
to
be
part
of
the
message.
Iraq’s
state run
news
channel,
Iraqiya,
is
seen
as
a
megaphone
for
Shiite
power
in
Iraq,
which
is
why
Maliki’s
assertion
of
his
right
to
retain
power
raised
international
concerns.
We're noting that report yet again. Reality on Iraq has been out there in every year in English for Americans to access. It is not my problem that the corporate media and the beggar and so-called 'independent' media walked away from Iraq. It is not my problem that YOUTUBE has hundreds of shows from the US and not a one of them focuses on Iraq.
It's not my fault that Americans invested time and trust into crap MY LEFT WING. If someone's being written up by THE WASHINGTON POST, stop thinking that they are truly anti-war. The blogger was a fake ass who used Iraq to sheepherd you to the polls for the Democratic Party. Whores get paid for doing that. It's not my fault that you were too stupid, once Amy Goodman showed her real self, to call Goody Whore out. The Full Broback. Ivan Brobeck is a war resister Amy Goodman refused to cover. She'd gotten her foundation money and was banking her millions from PACIFICA and didn't need to cover anti-war issues. It's an easy step from her ignoring war resisters to supporting the war on Libya and to spreading Russia-gate lies.
And it's a step that too many of you who mail the public e-mail account (common_ills@yahoo.com) were complicit in. That's reality.
Reality is that the US government gave Nouri al-Maliki a second term.
Reality is that you applaud a whore named Patrick Cockburn who has lied about this for over a decade now. He lied in real time and never, ever reported on The Erbil Agreement. He blamed Nouri's second term on Iran.
He's a liar for empire, stop pretending he's this brave journalist. You're an American idiot -- nod to Green Day -- if you still haven't caught on. The Arab world long ago caught on to Patrick and it's probably part of the reason that this Irish man who writes for a British paper has spent years now propping up US empire by covering US issues. He'd probably be stoned by people if he tried to jet in to Iraq or another Middle East country for a few days to 'report' again. He's loathed. Arab people caught on to him and his lies.
ANTIWAR.COM and Scott Horton chose to promote Patrick and still do.
That's not my problem. I've done what I've said I would. That's what I'll be held accountable for.
Nouri lost the 2010 election, he refused to step down, for a very brief time after the election, the US government supported Iraqiya and its leader Ayad Allawi. Then Samantha Power and Susan Rice convinced Barack (don't let him off, he shouldn't have allowed himself to be convinced) that Nouri was their best bet in Iraq -- for what they wanted which included keeping US troops in Iraq. So Joe Biden oversaw the drafting of The Erbil Agreement and went to Iraq to sell it on one of those trips he never tires of inflating the number of. He sold it and the leaders of various political parties signed off on it. The next day? Iraq ended the political stalemate the day after The Erbil Agreement was signed -- a detail Paddy Cocks has never told his readers -- and a president was named (Jalal Talabani) and immediately a prime minister-designate was named (Nouri). Nouri had made promises in that contract -- including Article 150 being implemented (and the Kurds were idiots to have believed him on that) -- and he immediately declared that he would be focusing on forming the government (Cabinet) first and then honoring his promises. He kicked the can again in December, a month later. In January, his press spokesperson would announce that the contract was illegal and Nouri would not be bound by it.
The Iraqi people had gone to the polls to toss out Nouri. Their votes were overturned by the US government. The ballot box had failed them.
We went over this in real time.
They now turned to their leaders.
Their leaders began demanding Nouri implement his promises from The Erbil Agreement. (The contract Barack personally told Ayad Allawi on the phone that the US government stood behind 100%.)
As Nouri blew them off, a coalition of Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds formed -- this included Moqtada al-Sadr -- and they were going to eject Nouri as prime minister. How, by following the Iraqi Constitution which outlined that you got signatures from X number of MPs, you handed that petition for a no-confidence vote to the Office of the President, the President then read it into the record at a session of Parliament, the MPs then voted and if the vote was met, the prime minister was removed from office.
They gathered the signatures required and then some. They presented it to the office of Jalal Talabani. Joe Biden then pressured Jalal not to present it to Parliament. Jalal declared a power not in the Constitution. He had to verify the signatures. Not only that, he had to make sure that the signatures would still be signed if they were presented with the petition right now. What a load of nonsense. Jalal claimed they did not have enough signatures under his rules (rules not in the Constitution). Jalal refused to say how many signatures they had under his count or who they people he claimed were retracting their signatures actually were. He then insisted he had to leave Iraq for emergency, life threatening surgery.
He was a damn liar in every way -- including the surgery. Jalal had elective knee surgery.
But karma, a higher power, fater or whatever bit him in his fat ass, he would leave Iraq at the end of that year on medical transport when he had a stroke while arguing with Nouri al-Maliki. Jalal would never recover from that stroke -- though the Talabani family lied to the Iraqi people -- going so far as to pose Jalal for photos -- which Arabic social media compared to WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S.
As we noted then, the Iraqi people tried to get rid of thug Nouri al-Maliki by voting him out. They then turned to their leaders.
They found no remedy there.
Now they took to the streets. And as they did, we warned what happens when the ballot box fails, when leaders fail and when protests fail. But your 'brave voices' like Patty Cocksburn never said a word because whores use their mouths for something other than the truth.
Nouri attacked the protesters. He called them terrorists. These were Sunnis, by the way. And he had Iraqi security forces attacking them. And this is when ISIS rises in Iraq. They show up, among other ways, on horseback, garbed in black, to defend the Sunnis gathered on the main road from Anbar to Baghdad. And Sunnis did not feel that the fight between the Baghdad-based government and ISIS had anything to do with them. Their attitude was largely a pox on both houses.
Some Sunnis did support ISIS. But the bulk did not.
The violence that they suffered is why the Sunnis don't protest the way they used to. They were killed, they were kidnapped, they were disappeared.
And it wasn't just the ones protesting. Nouri would get an arrest warrant for some Sunni man and send Iraqi forces to his home. If he wasn't there? They took the wife, the daughter, the son, the mother, the father -- maybe just one, maybe a combination. These people were then 'disappeared.'
That's a reality that whores like Patrick Cockburn never reported on.
Now US media did report on it. Once, When Nouri staged a press event where various Sunni women inmates were 'released.'
The US media never did follow ups on that event. They hadn't covered the problem before. But they praised Nouri and they moved on.
As the Iraqi media noted, none of those female prisoners at that event made it home.
Bit of problem for the whorish US media.
We can now leap to The October Revoltuion which was about calling out government corruption, calling out the lack of jobs and the lack of resources, demanding a government that actually represented the people.
This is The October Revolution and those of you who can't get it through your head, let's try one more time. This was Shi'ite youths protesting. Sunnis did not take park. They've basically walled themselves out of Iraq for their own safety. They're not going into Baghdad's main square to protest. It's not safe for them and hasn't been for years.
That was Shi'ite youth.
Trying paying attention. And, yes, our media is part of the problem but when did you last demand that THE NEW YORK TIMES or ABC or CNN or your favorite YOUTUBE personality address Iraq?
So, yeah, it is on you.
I like Chris Hayers. When Iraq Veterans Against the War were preparing for their Winter Soldier hearings, many people promised to cover it. Many people flat out lied.
Chris Hayes did not lie. Chris Hayes said he would cover it (I actually think he said he would try to) and he actually did. Not like Matthew Rothschild and hundreds of others who said they'd cover it while it was taking place -- it opened on a Thursday and concluded on the following Sunday -- to raise awareness of it but then didn't do so.
So last week, IN THESE TIMES published an Iraq piece and I was thrilled when I was informed about it. Great, they're doing some Iraq coverage!!!! And, in the phone call, I was told it was by Chris. Even better!!!
I was all prepared to excerpt from it in a snapshot. I said e-mail it, I'll read it and choose something to excerpt from it. If they'd hung up with an okay, I would've excerpted from it because that's what I said I would do because that's what I said I'd do. But the ITT friend felt the need to continue. What I should excerpt was X. After X was read, I said no excerpt at all. I have a pretty good memory. I knew the excerpt. Because it was from an article Chris wrote years ago. They were republishing an old article.
Nope.
Not interested.
I call that out repeatedly. How people want to weigh in on Iraq like it's 2006 and Bully Boy Bush is still in the White House.
Sorry.
Iraq can't afford reruns. It needs coverage of what's going on right now. We noted the US forces shooting up homes in Iraq this week -- and then noted it again to point out that it was completely ignored by US TV stations and US newspapers and US magazines.
The LGBTQ community is again being targeted in Iraq.
Western media's just not interested.
The political stalemate continues and it's a commentary on Iraq but the western press ignores it.
Climate change is impacting Iraq -- what I thought I would be writing about here tonight but then made the mistake of going into the public e-mails -- and there are so many other stories about what's going on right now -- include the various issues effecting Iraqi media.
We don't have time to drop back to Bully Boy Bush and pretend that we're doing something or that we're addressing Iraq's realities.
The US media won't do that. Moqtada is an idiot and a cult leader which is why the country's in a political stalemate. Another reason for it is Nouri al-Maliki.
Why won't the US media note Nouri. I think he's a thug but I've been very clear, going back months before this election, that Nouri was a major player and that the current prime minister was, through his own behaviors, making a case for people to support Nouri. Once the election was held, we noted the blocks going up to forming a government. We noted how they were Nouri's playbook and how Nouri used them before.
Nouri is not in retirement despite the US media acting as if he is. Note the following, all about Nouri in the last 12 hours:
The following sites updated: