Fractured
By Steve Hynd Sunday Aug 24, 2008 9:00pm
The Iraqi prime minister has shot down the Bush administration - and McCain's - Iraq policy by announcing publicly that there will be a timetable, and it will contain a fixed date. The White House and the pro-war lobby are spinning like tops, but it's impossible to put disguise their humiliation.
There is an agreement actually reached, reached between the two parties on a fixed date, which is the end of 2011, to end any foreign presence on Iraqi soil," Maliki said in a speech to tribal leaders in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.
... In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said there had been a draft agreement but that it needed to "go through a number of levers in the Iraqi political system before we actually have an agreement from the Iraqi side." "Until we have a deal, we don't have a deal," he said. He declined to comment on the 2011 withdrawal date.
Spin, spin, spin - but Maliki's having none of it.
Maliki said no agreement would be signed that did not respect Iraqi sovereignty, and said any deal would need to include a "specific date, not an open one" for withdrawal. "An open time limit is not acceptable in any security deal that governs the presence of the international forces," he said.
Maliki also said no foreigners would be given full legal immunity. Washington is seeking to avoid allowing its soldiers to be tried in Iraqi courts. In many countries where the United States has bases, treaties allow the forces to be governed by U.S. military law rather than placed under local jurisdiction. "We will not accept to put the lives of our sons on the line by guaranteeing absolute immunity for anybody, whether Iraqis or foreigners," Maliki said. "The sanctity of Iraqi blood should be respected."
Maliki also said an agreement had been reached that would prohibit U.S. military operations "without the approval of the Iraqi government and American forces."
Despite claims by war-boosters that all this can only happen because Bush was right - that the Iraqi Army would stand up so the US could stand down - Bush and McCain both are on record so many times saying that there should be no timetable and that it would only encourage "the enemy" that it's going to be impossible for them to wriggle out of this one. And in any case the war-boosters all know that they're in a race to declare victory in Iraq and take the subject off the debating table before the fecal matter hits the fan there. (Or at the very least, distract with the prospect of a new struggle of Great Powers. "Hey look, over there!")
That's because it looks very like the Surge will in fact turn out to be only a temporary downturn in violence. A large part of the reason for that, says Brian Katulis of the Center For American Progress, is that it gave Iraqi leaders an out on having to do any outreach to their colleagues in other factions. In particular, whether or not the Sadrist movement and the Sunni Awakening movement would be given the space to rejoin the mainstream of Iraqi politics was always going to be crucial if the Surge was to be more than a flash in the pan. We all know what happened with the Sadrists - and Maliki has announced his intention to crack down on the Awakening in much the same way. In fact, he's already started - with arrests of key Awakening leaders in Baghdad, Diyala province and elsewhere. There are 100,000 "Sons of Iraq" who will soon be without their weekly American paycheck with the Shiite led central government looking to take away their weapons. It will only take a fraction of them to react badly for security in Iraq to break down once more. Recall that we were told for years that the entire Sunni insurgency amounted to at most 20,000.
Which, in turn, will have a knock on effect on the Sadrists, the Kurds and all the littler factions, who will want to ensure they get a piece of the pie after all the shooting is done. Sistani, the other offtimes troublesome Iraqi cleric (he was the one who forced the original elections on Viceroy Bremer) has popped up to say he ain't deaded yet and President Talibani, a Kurd, hasn't been seen in public since August 3rd when he came to the US for emergency heart surgery. he doesn't even seem to have left the US at all, and didn't turn up for a scheduled meeting in Iran. That opens up the prospect of a struggle for the presidency as well as a struggle for power in the Kurdish North.
All in all, it's difficult to find an expert right now who is optimistic about the reduction in violence continuing untroubled and unabated. Meanwhile, Afghanistan is now more dangerous for US troops and their allies than Iraq ever was, the Taliban are resurgent, allies like Sarkozy are quite openly saying that NATO is losing there - and the Afghan president Karzai has just announced that his government too will seek to renegotiate the terms of foreign forces in their country after a US airstrike allegedly caused severe civilian casualties - one of many but it seems to have been the very last straw. Karzai's government has the same problems Maliki's does - incredible corruption and featherbedding coupled with a partisan approach to reconstruction where his friends get and his not-friends dont - but it seems likely that he too will call for a fixed timeline for foreign withdrawal along with more constraints on what foreign troops can do with impunity. And the US and its allies will have no option but to agree.
All of which means that the Bush/McCain line of foreign policy is in complete tatters. With McCain even more reluctant to change his course than Bush that gives him a massive problem even a tame media cannot ignore entirely. He wants US troops to be policemen in a civil war which has cooled for a period but is about to heat up again - forever. McCain's one high note is that Obama flipped from his original statements that the Surge would fail, under media pressure, just before his original thinking looks about to be proven correct - but even that won't be enough to absolve McCain of the charge that, after all, his judgement all along was atrocious.
Login or Register to post comments.
Bill
As usual, the Bush cabal thinks it can have it both ways.
This whole situation is a microcosm of all that is wrong with GWBush, his Administration, his way of doing things, his Presidency, the policies of his party, the way they conduct business...all of it.
Slightly off-topic:hope many Republicans follow Jim Leech's lead!
Worthy of being called "America's Number One Neocon," McCain is a member (signatory)
of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), a rightwing extremist organization
formed in 1997 with the intent of overthrowing Saddam Hussein and dominating the world
with U.S. military power.
Before joining the subversive PNAC conspiracy, Senator McCain was president of the New
Citizenship Project (NCP). Founded in 1994 by PNAC organizer Bill Kristol, NCP was
PNAC's parent and chief fundraising arm.
In 1998, McCain co-sponsored the Iraq Liberation Act. Drafted by PNAC officials, it
declared that regime change in Iraq should become U.S. foreign policy. To that end, the act
appropriated $97 million in U.S. military aid for the Iraqi National Congress (INC), a
group of anti-Hussein Iraqi militants determined to instigate a national uprising in Iraq.
In 2002, McCain was co-chair with Sen. Joe Lieberman of the White House-based Committee
for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI). Established by PNAC in 2002, CLI continued to finance
INC with millions of taxpayer dollars until shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, when CLI was
disbanded.
Fnally, in 2004, McCain officially became a PNAC member by signing a letter from Bill Kristol's organization hypocritically condemning Russian President Putin’s foreign policy for its return
to the “rhetoric of militarism and empire.”
Given McCain's unbending rightwing ideology, it should come as no surprise that old guard
PNAC members are foreign policy advisors on his 2008 presidential campaign team, such as
the following prominent neocons -- all potential members of a future McCain war council:
Richard L. Armitage: PNAC signatory, former Bush 43 Deputy Secretary of State. By his own
admission, Armitage was responsible for leaking CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity to the press.
John R. Bolton: PNAC signatory, former U.S. ambassador to U.N. Nomination to U.N. rejected
by Senate, but George W. Bush put him in place on a recess appointment. Name floated as possible
Secretary of State for McCain. Advocates attacking Iran.
Max Boot: PNAC signatory, columnist, McCain speech writer. Advocated attacking other Middle
East countries in addition to Iraq and Iran, including Syria. Said McCain's "bellicose aura" could
"scare the snot out of our enemies," who "would be more afraid to mess with him" than with other
then-potential presidential candidates.
Steve Forbes: PNAC founder, flat-tax fanatic
Robert Kagan: PNAC founder.
Bill Kristol: PNAC founder and editor of the rightwing magazine, The Weekly Standard. Has
consistently been wrong in his foreign policy analyses regarding Iraq.
Daniel McKivergan: PNAC deputy director
Randy Scheunemann: PNAC signatory, co-director and executive director of Committee for
the Liberation of Iraq.
Gary Schmitt: PNAC signatory, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Defended
warrantless eavesdropping on Americans by claiming that U.S. Constitution "created a unitary
chief executive who could, in times of war or emergency, act with the decisiveness, dispatch and,
yes, secrecy, needed to protect the country and its citizens."
James Woolsey: PNAC signatory, Director of the CIA, 1993-1995.
Robert B. Zollick: PNAC signatory, President, World Bank.
McBush will just have to re-invade if he wins.
My friends, the Surge(tm) which my (secret Muslim, terrorist fist-jabbing) opponent opposed has WORKED!
VICTORY!!!!! Now wasn't that worth $3 trillion++ taxpayers..... the bombing, the killing, the IED's, the beheadings, the PTSD, the wounded, torturing all those folks, destroying or ending hundreds of thousands of lives! Way to go Republican Party, thanks for eight years of lies and disasters.
George Dubya is the MAN from the PARTY that screwed America! The French were right!
Look, they invited us to invade their country. Like typical Americans, we showed up with lots of bombs and missiles. Now the party is over and they are sending all their guest home. Sure, Iraq will look like a post-party house in a John Hughes teen film but what they hey. Those Iraqis should keep their sense of humor.
4 more years!
And the US and its allies will have no option but to agree.
I'm sure they'll bail on Afghanistan if asked, but I just can't envision the U.S. leaving Iraq (s)oil. But it's adorable that Al-Maliki thinks his opinions matter.
And those megabases? And the world's largest embassy?
2011? No way, Uday. American troops are not leaving Iraq any time soon. And if Maliki persists in this willful disregard of his patrons, he's going to end up in too many pieces to count.
Zlad! @ 5:
Does the agreement preclude a re-invasion and re-regime change if more bad intelligence tricks President McCain?
we're sending more troops to afghanistan just in time for the taliban fighters to hunker down for the winter.
Just watch, McCain will spin this so he looks like he was for it all the time. This is going to be good.
MSM will skip this.
Headline: Obama supported by Iraqi prime minister (Bush find's Maliki is making WMD)
Bush or McCain won't have to 'spin' their way out of anything. They'll just lie and say things are working out exactly as planned and the Media will back them up. End of story.
John J @ 14:
So true look at Russia.
Invasion and occupation are not going to win us any beauty contests. Even many military people agree that there are other ways to drive the world to better behavior. We could have done so much better after 9/11 (or even before). Let these people iron it out themselves. Of course, the Iraqi majority loves Iran (they are both Shiite). We do need to insure that the minority in Iraq either gets a voice or can form their own province.
Kill-em-all McSame is not the right person. If he wins because you haven't told your R deluded relatives he is a nutcase, I hope you can sleep at night. All I'm sayin'. Since 80% of Americans don't like the direction the country is going now (according to GALLUP today) it shouldn't be too hard to talk them down from the Rove-Rush-Hannity-Cheney talking points. Speak.
hehehe eat shit neocons
bobbie @ 15:
NO, that is not the end of the story. I refuse to accept that. Yes, the media is bought, yes, too many congresspeople think they rule us, not work for us. But that can change if we all speak up.
At this point, I do not see how they can be negatively affected by contradiction. C & L - if you you really want to report something new, try to find a BushCo story where they told the truth .... that would totally freak me out!
The iraq timetable question for me, is how the ratings for the "cut-n-run" defeatocrats spineless withdrawl is gonna keep up with the Neorepublihawk's "hero's welcome home" festive gala.
Just another direct kick to the shriveled GOP nutsack.
As twisted as it may sound, I was actually hoping this Iraq clusterfuck would drag on long enough to force a draft.
A draft, IMHO, is about the only thing that would wake the people of this country up enough to actually hold all of these war criminals accountable.
With that said, 2011 is a long ways away, I don't see this as a victory for anyone.
Fine. So we have a leader of a sovereign nation telling the military that invaded his country to get the hell out on a specific date. Good start. But I'd like know if Maliki will insist that the US military bases that are under construction be torn down. Cheney -- forget the simian warmonger and the corportate elites that run the US -- Rockeffeller, Mellon, Carnegie and others -- don't and didn't give a shit about "growing democracy" (whatever the fuck that is!), freedom or any other the other disposable, jingoistic twaddle that spews from their mouths as justification for invading Iraq and killing 300K 500K civialians. The main reason for the invasion of Iraq was to set up a permanent military presence in the Middle East to keep China and Russia from gaining access to the oil fields in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the 'Stans. If Maliki refuses to allow the bases to be built and to be occupied by US troops after the withdrawal deadline, then he is just another slick, Western-backed pawn for the rapacious and criminal elites in the US and Europe. We'll then know of what he is made.
Sure, Bushco may assassinate Maliki, but they'll have to find a new puppet to work with, and look how far the old puppet's gone off the reservation. The Iraqis don't want us there, and Bushco/McCainInc. risk having to let slip the facade that the invasion of Iraq wasn't just a grab for oil. If they do, the U.S. will face incredible international pressure, and domestic opinion will bottom out for our little Mideast adventure.
Who wants to take a bet where Maliki is "forced" to resign, or is killed by a road side bomb.
How dare he stand up to the US liberators.
So yeah, i'm remembering back to the Soviets' adventure in Afghanistan...
How many years did they keep that up
How'd they make out?
It's almost become a game trying to predict what catastrophic failure from history we'll try to recreate on a grander scale next.
Maliki's also made it clear it's not just US combat troops that need to leave Iraq.
It's ALL troops - all "trainers" & all "residual forces" too.
canuckvoyeur @ 25:
actually canuck I was thinking along the lines of a former pupet president ngo dihn diem(to any vietnamese out there , sorry about the spelling) who was killed by his own army generals if I remember
Marc @ 3:
That was one amazing speech.
The US has give Iraq over 1 Trillion dollars and now the Iraqis are giving a timetable for the US to get out. Look for the Iraq Government to sue the US for the murders and damage to their country. The White House players got played and now the Middle East is laughing all the way to the bank. Yes the US is in a recession and thanks to Bush/Cheney who told Iraq they didn't have to pay back any money to the US taxpayers that was used in the rebuilding of Iraq. As Americans lose jobs and homes we can all be happy that Iraq has a 80 billion dollar surplus and is currently making deals to sell oil to China and Russia. Looks like McCain will have to bomb Iran and Russia to stay the Bush/Cheney course. By the time Americans wake up to what's right in their face the USA will be up for sale.
we thought we were clever providing the war lords with stingers to use on soviet gunships. the shoes on the other foot now, with the u.s in afghanistan, and i bet the russians haven't forgot that stinger deal.
Maybe its a time horizon.
i think maliki is all talk. he is saying what his people want to hear. but he will let america call all the shots. no american will be tried in an iraqi court.
Don't pay any attention to that man behind the curtain! Silence, whippersnapper! The great and powerful OZ has spoken! Don't you make me turn this country around and go home! We're here for a hundred years, you ungrateful bastard!
too bad, I like C&L, but this is another amateurish analysis, of course only to make it look bad for a political delusional benefits.
Iraq did not start to arrest the awakening, it is nice to see you bashing your media yet believing in the same media when it supports your causes. There are rogue factions from the awakening, and awakening also includes shiites in case you don't know. for example latest arrest in Diyala was targeting a shiite awakening led by groups loyal to SCIRI . There is probably a plan to re-in the awakening, but many of them have strong ties now to the government, it makes no sense the government tries to arrest them all.
You mentioned that you have been told the insurgents were 20,000 at most, but you are noticing how the awakening is 100,000. buddy, you're talking about two different groups, 20,000 did not become all of them awakening, neither all awakening are former insurgents. it's logical, some of the awakening were anti-insurgents or neutrals, they simply start to organize and take arms against terrorists. simply they are local iraqi awakening refused the presence of AQ, and they also formerly refused the presence of US.
Sistani have never been a troublesome, you speak like a con, Sistani always stood with the general public of Iraq, he stopped the almost civil war broke by the ex-PM Allawi, he stopped violence numerous of times and he helped balance Shiite powers, he is not alone, even if he died, he has people to succeed him. he also insisted on election way before Bush expressed support for an election. Don't know from where you get the troublesome tag.
Talabani is ill, but I must remind you, but the presidency council can proceed without him, there are two other VPs who can carry his tasks exactly, Iraq president does not have much power, Iraq presidency has signature power, Iraq presidency council can work with the president absent.
The biggest issues facing Iraq are: 1-Kirkuk . 2-of course the rivalry between factions, but once there is a stable and confident army, there is no big problem for Iraq to stand up. this is not victory for Bush, so don't worry about it to try to prove Iraq is a failure so you can say Bush failed. well the war bring no big interests to the US, and that's not a success. because I don't think the Iraqi government is a loyal ally. you have to remember, they also have allies in Iran, Turkey.. . Turkey and Iran can keep the Kurds in check. Iran can keep the SCIRI and Sadr in check. so the stability of Iraq will be done in an Iraqi style. no success to Bush administration. but might be better for US troops and Iraqis.
Jacki @ 30:
Ok, you're right about the negative impacts on US, however notice that Iraq is the 7th source of oil to the USA, the contract with China was an old one, China negotiated with Iraqi government to revive the contract. That all does not compensate the tax payers in the US. but remember you can't ask a nation destroyed by a war to compensate you. Iraq lost billions of its own lost profit for 13 years of sanctions and then 5 years of war, beside the destruction of society, knowledge and everything. Of course, the main factor that led to all this is the former dictator government of Iraq.
Bush: "We will never leave Iraq as long as I am the king".
The Iraqi people have certainly been at this (politics) much longer than the white man. Sorry eugenic morons of European decent, you've been snookered. Now what? Another regime change? Don't think so. This unforeseen event certainly goes against the neocon plan to "permanently" have military presence in Iraq. So sorry, bye, bye.
Hey! We invaded once, we can do it again. Who the hell do these Iraqies think they are to want good Americans, soldiers and mercenaries together, to leave by a certain date. That is just soooo rude. They should make polite hints, like: "it's time for us to go to bed" or "it's late and we have to work in the morning."
Where's Emily Post when you need her?
4 Biff Limbaugh... thanks for that list of rogues, crooks, and absolute traitors! It'll be useful when the warrants are issued... hopefully before hell freezes over.
Barrett D @ 33:
Careful... you're sounding somewhat smug. Is that intentional?
Give me a break. Maliki is a stooge and couldnt order a hamburger without US approval. This friggin timeline of 2011 is two more wasted years of death and money of which Im sure it will be two more after that. Big oil is laughing at you.
Before this is over all of America will see how very dangerous it would be to have McSain as our President.
Behind all the smoke and mirrors, I truly believe that most American people can see through the smoke and mirrors, they are getting from McSains, media, especially CNN, who have just become FOX, like, in that they are no different.
GAH.. Please: don't use that word.
'Flipped' that is. First, it buys into the idiotic frame that the Republicans used against Kerry.. the "flip-flopper" moniker (as if never changing your opinion makes you a better politician) Second, it's not even appropriate here, since it's not an opinion, it was a prediction of reality.
And obviously you have to be prepared to be proven wrong about reality - Unless you're a Republican. In which case you keep spinning and lying about it. (And sadly, this 'redefine reality' tactic apparently works to keep people fooled for 8 years, at the least.)
But I'd sure like to think we're better than that 'round here.
PLEASE! Spell his name correctly. McSAME.
Thag u bery buch.
Oh....don't worry. A timeline for defeat is not in the cards cause we have Iran to bomb next! Wheee!!
And THEN we can nuke Moscow. Oh, those good old days. And just for the hell of it, cause they....heh heh...Hannoy me so much, guess what's NEXT on the pie plate of impish imperialism??
Johnny Senile
My Friend @ 35,
Sectarian Clashes Flare Up Again
That's hardly the only report. But thanks for playing from the Green Zone.
Regards, C
There is something very troubling about the way McCain is playing the POW card. You should not use that kind of a thing to openly promote yourself or as an excuse for mistakes. So, he is allowed to live a lavish out of touch lifestyle in excess, disconnected from the people he serves in the Senate because he was in our military? He does not know how many houses he owns, because he was in our military?
There are others that paid a much higher price than McCain did, and he hurts the notion of service and degrades those in uniform when he constantly uses his time in Hanoi as a crutch. He needs to stop that. Other Veterans will take notice. A lot of good people, are dead. There are a lot of Veterans and relatives who remember exactly who paid the ultimate price in our wars. This partisan excuse making is unbecoming of a Veteran running for office.
Well they have gone and done it now. How many time has the great oracle of the idiot republicans "bush" told everyone if you set a time table that the terrorists will just sit back and wait until we leave and then take over?
Tomorrow they will be building canoes to bring there people over here.
Oh my god the muslims will be running down the streets of the towns and cities all over America cutting peoples heads off.
I hope they go to republican neighborhoods. LOL what idiots hahahahahahahaha!
pcvirginiabeach @ 46:
You're not the only one who has brought this up. One of McWarrior's fellow POWs has spoken out forecefully against his usage of the POW card as a way to escape tough questions.
http://www.alternet.org/election08/95825/i_spent_years_as_a_pow_with_joh...
redsaunas @ 10:
Oh great...this really is going to become another Vietnam. Throwing out our puppets when they rebel is so passé, ya know...
and how long before Ohio Rep. Jean Schmitt starts screaming "Cut and Run!!!"?
canuckvoyeur @ 25:
If that happens look for a situation reminicent of the last time you played WHACK-A-MOLE.
If anyone thinks that killing enough Iraqi and Afghan "#1,2,3, or whatever the government rates them, "terrorist leaders"
will finally give a VICTORY to the Bush Administration and access to Middle Eastern Oil, they are living in a makebelieve Neocon world.
Has anyone noticed that, when Obama could be portrayed (just a few months ago) as ignorant, callow and irresponsible for suggesting a timetable for Iraqi withdrawal, this was a huge story. As soon as Obama was proven right, and McCain shown up as a mindless warmonger, the story has just about disappeared from the mainstream press?
How surprising.
Stop American hegemony. It is a suicide pact and not beneficial to Americans.
Obama wants to kill more people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan and the list goes on.
McCain wants to kill anything that moves.
It is time that America stand up for its own Constitution and get its house in order.
the neocon oligarchs who have gathered to their bosoms Big Oil, Big Arms, Big Media and Big Jesus desperately want a low level war to continue so that they and their satraps can continue in power. Since the Iraq war is winding down and we will no longer have a bunch of dirty muslims to kick around; Lets go back and redo the cold war!!!! Lets fight those dirty commies......what? You say that we already beat the commies?.....18 years ago you say.......ahhhh, welll, what do we call them then?.....dirty ruskis somehow does not have the same tone as commies.................how about.....besides it is pretty hard, even for our hyocritical leaders, to say that what we did in Kosovo is somehow different from what the Russians are doing about South Ossetia...well, how about......and you can't really call them on doing a preventive war and attempting a regime change, after all that is what the Bush Doctrine is, invading a country that has done nothing to harm you simply because they might at some future date. Besides, Iraq is a small country that can be easily invaded. So how exactly is what Russia did any different than what the US did......Well, Georgia is a democratic country,Iraq and Serbia wern't..... Sematics. But in the end, where the entire world in concerned. No difference. WELCOME TO THE COLD WAR PART DUEX. Russia vs the US. WATCH as bush attempts to box Obama-or st john who is very willing to go along on this-into a new cold war!! After all, what the oligarchs want, the oligarchs get.
Login or Register to post comments.