'There is no Iraqi government'
Six weeks ago, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said we would see “a major breakthrough” within “weeks” on political reconciliation in Iraq, which he believes is unfolding at “breakneck speed.”
It’s one of those quotes that looks increasingly ridiculous all the time.
A principal architect of Iraq’s interim constitution, who resigned in August as one of the country’s top diplomats, has laid out a devastating critique of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the U.S. occupation, telling NBC News that, functionally, “there is no Iraqi government.”
The diplomat, Feisal Amin Istrabadi, said in his first interview since stepping down as Iraq’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations that “this government has got to go.”
Istrabadi said the Iraqi government itself is an illusion, stocked with incompetent administrators who had helped bring about “chaos and instability.” He pointed to the Health Ministry, dominated by the Mahdi Army militia. “You cannot have this sectarian doling out of the Cabinet ministries,” Istrabadi said. “You’ve got to bring in competent technocrats to try to run those ministries, the service ministries.”
This guy is clearly not on the same page as the Bush administration.
interesting.
Clearly not a Regent U. alum.
Irrelevant........
Dear Iraqis,
You know, we'd love to help, but our government isn't exactly firing on all cylinders either.
Best of luck,
Uncle Sam
a lier, over and over...yawn...
Not to mention the ULTIMATE ATTRITION IN THE ‘COALITION’ - IRAQI TROOPS ARE SET TO LEAVE
What about the glorious PURPLE FINGERS that Limbaugh and the Republicans were shouting about for years!!!! I guess the goddamn elections weren't so free after all. Can you say PUPPETS?
The more our people hear Limbaugh, the more our people suffer.
Get him off the air. Get Bush out of office - before 1/20/09.
Neo-cons will never wake up from their Iraqi wet dream.
If they could get Imus off the air, they should get Limbaugh off the air.
He's way more putrid, offal & harmful.
since when is this administration ever on the same page as sanity and rational observation? we live in bizarro world
well....no shit.you know they (repug talking anus's)will say it's all the Iraqis fault...then they'll blame the dems...I don't know how ,but it's going to be the Dems fault for the Iraqi govt failing to take over..then of course the repugs don't want the Iraqis to take over....after all.What was the first building the US secured?.........................................................not the banks,ministry of defense,intelligence...hell they didn't even secure the local donut shop....nope they went straight for the Ministry Of Oil!
good work with that.
up next . . . . bankrupt the global middle class . . . buy their things for pennies on the dollar . . . join the rest of the club in Dubai or the newly formed South American country, Busharia
Lindsey Graham flip flops in Mitt-esque fashion but the sunday show hosts are always sucking up to him. He's their "lifelong bachelor" messiah
OT - but extremely frightening:
Is WWIII becoming a reality as our Dear Leader seemed so excited to proclaim yesterday?
Interesting and disturbing as is most of the news from Iraq. For a different, though no less disturbing, take on the situation in-country, check out www.watchingamerica.com. Until I stumbled across this site a couple weeks ago, I had no idea how much I had come to depend on westernized media interpretations of the day to day goings on over there. Scary stuff.
Actually I think Senator Graham is not wrong though there is a caveat. Iraqi reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites does seem to be occurring under the auspices of the Grand Ayotollah al-Sistani and Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi. This new grand coalition groups the Sadrists, the (Shiite) Fadhila party, all Sunni parties including ex-Baathists and various insurgent groups, a small Arab Christian party, the partisans of former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi, and the partisans of former prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. However, this is largely being done outside the formal government and with the formal goal of ousting the US occupation by force if necessary. These Iraqi groupings seem to be coming together as result of Senator Biden's resolution in the US Senate calling for a soft partition of the country. Most Iraqis have gotten quite tired of continual interference in their domestic affairs by outsiders whether they be al-Qaeda operatives, Saudi Sunni Princes, Iranian Shi'ite militants and US occupier. It is quite telling that Iraq's Top Intelligence Official told Vice President Cheney to his face no less than the Iraqi Government will not accept permanent US troops nor allow permanent US bases. Cheney must have keeled over for this goes against his primer from 1999, The Project for the New American Century, which calls for permanent US bases both in Iraq and elsewhere in the Gulf. Next the Iraqi Government is now on record on several occasions that Blackwater USA must go, no if ands or buts. A diplomatic face-saving on this seems in the works but the Bush Administration is digging its heels on permanent bases with the State Department issuing what sounds more out of the Soviet era a statement about some "eternal strategic relationship that is all-encompassing."
This nascent reconciliation between these various Iraqi groups does not include any Kurds which in the long-term augur for a hard partition between the Kurds and the Arabs, it is quite clear that with al-Qaeda in Iraq now largely irrelevant that the Iraqi Arabs are taking aim at overthrowing the US occupation. The key points of this pact are, no more sectarianism that would justify having US troops to quell (thereby removing the need for the surge); an end to both Iranian meddling as well as meddling from various Gulf States; no support for al-Qaeda; and the right to armed resistance against the US occupation should the US not leave by the end of next year. So while Senator Graham does seem to have read correctly that there is an emerging Iraqi consensus, he misses the aim of such a coalition is to end once and for all any notion that the US in Iraq to stay. All foreigners must go as Iraqis reclaim their sovereignty. Now there's a word for the Bush Administration, sovereignty.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Iraq should follow that model of democracy Italy and change governments every 2 years or 10,000 miles. Whichever comes first.
Remember all the Repubs in Congress waving their stupid purple fingers? Even back then, any rational person could recognize what a ridiculous self-serving display of hubris that was. Yet Lindsey Graham and his ilk continue babbling their fairy tales to anyone who will still listen.
At times I wonder if they have a running bet on who can make the most absurd statement of the week.
I wish everytime one of these chickenhawk bush apologists gets on the air and bloviates about how great things are and are going to be in Iraq, their past predictions would be played back right then to show just how ridiculous they sound. It is beyond belief that they continue to be listened to given their history of lies and distortions. I just don't understand why the MSM continues to trot these fools out in front of the camera as if what they say is credible.
bush is not on the same page unless it's perforated.
HE MAKES ME ASHAMED TO BE FROM SC
Wow, incompetent people running the Iraqi government?? How strange!! Almost like OUR government is the one who set it up.
Appears that we created it in our image.
Look, forget about Iraq.
Iran is the gravest threat to America since the Japanese. Led by Hitler incarnation Ahmedinejad, we now know that Iran has a nuclear arsenal capable of hitting the United States in 15 minutes. We know where the weapons are, they are in the area around Teheran, to the east south, west and north somewhat.
We saw trailers there that could easily be used for transporting materials needed to build a nuclear weapons facility (such as, for example, gravel and concrete).
America cannot afford to wait for the evidence in the form of a mushroom cloud.
Inspectors will never finish the job, and never find the nukes because the Iranians are very clever at hiding them.
Not only that, but we now know that Iran had something to do with 9-11. We know for certain there were a series of high-level meetings between Ahmedinejad and Al-Qaeda over a period of years. We are concerned that they might have discussed the sale of nukes to Al-Qaeda, or that they may have engaged in planning attacks on Americans.
The fact that Iran denies it has weapons, plus the fact that inspectors can't find them, is proof that they have them.
That and the trailers. We need to invade as soon as possible to protect our way of life and preserve the freedoms that Americans enjoy in our transparent system of government.
Just for a moment try to feel the same way you felt on 9-11, and then realize that the Iranians were involved somehow. And get really really angry at the Iranians.
Then GO GET 'EM! Y-A-A-A-A-H!!!
Lindsey is also a JAG, a Judge. Lindsey believes it's a ok to ignore previous court awards in court. Lindsey does not represent his constituents and the constituents plan to take care of that at election time. Worst US Senator in the nation in my opinion
"This guy is clearly not on the same page as the Bush administration."
I disagree. This guy virtually proves what some lawmakers (and presidential candidates) have been saying. Time to replace Maliki and those other incompetent IRAQI's with new puppets. Allawi anyone?
Of course once the NEW new government steps up, it would be irresponsible to end the war. I mean, we haven't even given this NEW new government a chance! Certainly not OUR fault that Iraq's OLD new government was corrupt.
Gonna need 2-3 more Friedman units to see how the NEW new government works out....
Who listens to Lindsey Graham He has had his head out of his ass in so long he has no idea where the American people are
make that hasn't
Coffee hasn't kicked in yet
Are you sure?
It sounds to me like he is almost perfectly in line with the Bush Administration. It seems as though he's misdirecting the blame for this disaster away from the Bush Administration, directing it to the Iraqi government instead (as if this government isn't the creation of the White House itself). It falls right in line with all this talk about how the Iraqis have to "stand up for themselves" or "take responsibility for their own country" and other assorted garbage slogans you've heard from Bush and his supporters.
I'd even go so far as to suggest that this diplomat's statements merely help lay the groundwork for replacing this ostensibly "democratic" government with one that is more openly dictatorial, as has been discussed publicly already.
They are trying to prepare us to accept the idea that nearly 30,000 of our US servicemen and millions of Iraqi civilians have been killed, maimed, displaced and tortured just to replace Saddam Hussein with a different despotic regime.
There is no legitimate United States government either. The Bush regime violates every principle of the Constitution and uses torture, secret prisons and unreasonable (actually criminal) search and seizure.
It is our right, actually our duty as Americans to remove this illegal government and reclaim our unalienable rights. Using the methods of Martin Luther King and Gandhi. 300 million Americans can't be controlled by a few thousand thugs if we demand to be free.
From the Declaration of Independence:
The most lucid view of the current Iraqi government I've heard is from Ambassador Peter Galbraiths' interview(and book) on NPR. There is no central government. The only ones saying that are gooper liars.
It is a must listen at NPR.org, the book is "End of Iraq".
Next stop: Bush Administration installs another "Washington-friendly Strongman Dictator" to rule Iraq (to replace the one they spent billions to oust) with an Iron fist to bring the country under control.
A central strongman is a pipe dream, Mugsy. They could put whoever they want in that seat, but its too late. There is no chance to re-unify the three factions, even by force.
A weak federal govt is possible but bush denial is putting even that in jeopardy.
Your ugly liberal roots are showing Steve Benen.
This guy Istrabadi is full of sh-t and you stepped in it.
He's just whining because he didn't 'get his' out of the hand picked, purple-thumbed, technocracy in charge.
You MAY be correct that: "This guy is clearly not on the same page as the Bush administration.", but that means squat, because he DOESN'T HAVE TO BE 'on the same page' to turn his country over to Western Interests. That's why he feels, as does Graham, that 'this government' has got to go. It's not cooperating efficiently enough in the destruction of it's own society and culture.
FWIW, and to put 'competent' in re technocratic behavior into perspective, George Bush IS a 'competent technocrat'.
He is the U.S. technocracy's 'Face Man', not the administrative brain, or any other 'brain' for that matter.
He can sweet talk investors into investing in busts such as Arbusto Energy...
He can arrange a $$$ deal to buy the Texas Rangers.
He can't OPERATE either... That's another technocrat's job.
George Bush is PART of a managerial-administrative technocracy, a vital part of something that should NOT be aspired to, or relied on, to serve the interests of anyone in the society it operates within.
The same goes for Iraq where the insurgents are quite correctly killing technocrats wherever they find them, no matter the affiliation, because technocracy is QUITE FOREIGN to muslim society and culture, a COMMUNITY BASED society and culture.
Community... something Americans only understand in terms of 'neighborhood watch' signs. Compare the citizens (and municipal/state/federal) response to Hurricane Katrina approaching the Gulf coast of the U.S. with the response of Cubans, where Katrina passed right over them and NO ONE DIED!
Instead of a million different SUVs frantically driving a million different ways with personal possesion packed in them instead of "friends"/"neighbors" (priorities ya' know...) clogging up the escape routes, the Cubans moved as communities to pre-established safe spots, with the local cop, doctor, housewife, mechanic, etc. sticking together as a cohesive group.
Technocrats ABHOR, seek to assimilate, "cohesive groups" that operate independently. You should really re-read Orwell's 1948 (84), Fahrenheit 451...
The technocracy this quisling 'Iraqi' speaks of spells the destruction of his own society, community, and culture. He will end up residing in the United States (Fairfax Va?) where he will feel right at home. It's not too far from <a href="http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:moZDsrRa-gMJ:www.law.depaul.edu/institutes_centers/ihrli/_downloads/istrabadi_cv.pdf+Feisal+Amin+Istrabadi+education&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&lr=lang_en&client=firefox-a"Indiana.
Theodore Rosak, from The Making of a Counter Culture: Reflections on the Technocratic Society on "technocracy" @ Google Books
What is the matter with all of you great thinkers???
Doesn't anyone know that this has to be CLINTONS fault?!!!!!!!!!
jeeeeeeezzzzzzzz!!!!
And so continues the bloodiest puppet show ever.
This guy is clearly not on the same page as the Bush administration.
Or is he??? It looks increasingly like the bush administration would like to delete the current government and start over again. Of course they wouldn't actually do any better but you know how they think.
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