Bellow are links to the important news stories of the day, included at the bottom of the links are insights and commentary on the significance of these events. All comments/ideas emailed to webmaster@lionofiraq.com will be posted as received.....more news
Plans to partition Iraq are causing a political earthquake, says Nermeen Al-Mufti
Senate Hearings
After watching the senate hearings with Crocker and Petraeus two things disturbed me.
One when the Senate was presented with the accusations/evidence of Iranian training/funding/arming of the insurgency and terrorism in Iraq, there was no sense of outrage but of resignation. If this was taking place in the United States what would they say but instead they give off the attitude of "ow OK i guess we deserve to have a our service men killed and blown up by Iranians......no big deal to me" Republicans and Democrats all say they support our servicemen....why don't they at least denounce Iran for killing the troops they monotonously praise.
The second issue is with the misleading statements from Crocker about Maliki and the government. Just from watching this hearing you would think that Maliki was a good guy with the interests of Iraq's and Americans as his driving influence. The reality is that Maliki is firmly supporting Iranian and Mahdi army goals, while only doing enough to appear as an ally to the U.S. . Crocker knows this, the Senate should know this but everyone there seemed to be happy playing the game, lie to the American public game so we dont make our supposed allies mad at us . Both sides tout the 2005 Iraqi election as democracy and shut down support for change in the Iraqi government by claiming interference in democracy but in reality they know the elections where a scam and heavily tainted by Iran (reference:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/29/AR2007082901930.html) They then call for democratic change in Iraq for a government they support via money and military arms. Why would the current Iraqi government ever vote itself out of power and if the people wanted a change how would they pressure the government to do this?
The biggest problem in this war from Democrats and Republicans are there attempts at manipulation of American perception over simply telling the truth.
Investor's Business Daily
Tuesday September 11, 7:00 pm ET
Ibd
Monday, Jul. 09, 2007 By BRIAN BENNETT/WASHINGTON
This is brought back from the archives just to bring the issue back to the table. A main point being lost in Petraeus's and Crocker's meeting with the Senate committee is the Effectiveness of Maliki and his government. Maliki has only offered up token changes in leader ship and the arrests to keep the U.S. deluded that Maliki can be a viable option. But his net actions and history must be taken into account and when they are it is clear that he does not have the same goal as the United States.
The Iraq government is the crux to the whole problem.... no Sunni wants to work with the government because it is sectarian and they don't trust it. its to corrupt....
we cant pull out unless we have a fix for the problem or we just get bigger problems....we are delaying our problems by supporting the current government ......for any significant change there has to be a civil war of sorts.....we can either pull out and let it develop on its own....or we can choose who we like and support them as one unfolds and have allies at the end. It has already been said there is a civil war and it is true but its not as big as it could be.
Thomas is right when he says there is no significant co-operation between Sunni and Shiite.... but there can be cooperation between all the groups... i see it all the time in American led/protected forces. These people can, do and have worked together, in the past and currently but it will not happen when there controlling body (i.e. the government is sectarian) again we come back to changing the government.
I see constant speculation from the Iraqis that America is going to push Allawi into power and make a new government.....I wish this where the case.... I have seen this speculation a couple months after Maliki took power and have seen it continue..... it never materializes but the Iraqis don't want to give up hope that something better is on the way.
Well this raises the question: How do you make a government that is not too far sectarian?.....i don't have any confidence in the democratic process in this country....the election is not until late 2008....many Iraqis want a change but I am afraid that between religious edicts and threats of violence and cheating no one non-sectarian will get elected.
Some in the U.S. government have said it is up to the Iraq's to change there government.....well I ask them how they are supposed to do that when the U.S. supports this particular government..... you certainly cant threaten them into, and elections are still a significant way off. Really who is going to vote themselves out of power when someone like the U.S. is backing them up??????
The only ones with significant room to maneuver and empower non-sectarians is the U.S.
At the end of the day the only way we can be successful in Iraq is if people who support American democracy and ideals are the ones in power, the only way they are going to get in power is if we help them. The Iranian government supports there side not only by supporting there ideals but by supporting all that causes chaos so as to cut down on American success. Our enemies support there constituents we need to support ours.
The policy of standing back and letting sides duke it out while protecting a government that is clearly sectarian and anti-American will not win us any friends or wars.
Alexander
CQPolitics.com via Yahoo! News Thu, 06 Sep 2007 11:30 AM PDT
Partisans on both sides of the Iraq War debate stepped up their efforts Thursday to influence the public’s assessment of President Bush’s troop surge and the need for a continued massive U.S. military commitment in the year ahead.
ABS-CBNNEWS.com Mon, 03 Sep 2007 10:05 AM PDT
DAMASCUS - Syria has imposed strict visa requirements on Iraqi nationals, officials said on Monday, cutting the only accessible escape route for thousands of refugees fleeing the upheaval in Iraq.
As America continues its bottom up campaign of arming local citizenry and producing town guards the same could be done with those attempting to flee to Syria. If refugees start becoming a problem in Iraq then the camps that are formed should not be allowed to turn into the classic mass of bodies with nothing to do all day but wait for food hand outs. The able bodied should be given depression era type projects to work on and others trained to be the town guards. I would say that if these camps are formed they should not be called refugee camps but organized as towns.
