Nobody else finds this obscene?

[ComNavFdgPk]

I'm rather surprised that I couldn't find a thread on this here. I meant to post it yesterday when I first read it, but got.........distracted!

Has anybody else heard anything about the Iraqi Parliament taking a two-month vacation one month after American troops suffer one of the most deadly months since the beginning of this fiasco. I know I saw it in the Washington Post, and Skelton was busy raising hell about it.

This ought to be the thing that can bring Republicans and Democrats together on this damn war funding bill. If the fuckin' Iraqi government doesn't think it's important enough to interrupt their vacation time to start setting and meeting some goals, then screw 'em. Add to this, they want another $50 billion in debt to be cancelled!

 

[Centexfarmer]

Re: Nobody else finds this obcene?

What?

Got any links?

News sources?

Quotes?

If what you're saying can be corroborated, then not only is it obscene, it's an OUTRAGE!

 

[ComNavFdgPk]

Re: Nobody else finds this obcene?

Skelton to Iraq parliament: No vacation
WASHINGTON, April 30 (UPI) -- U.S. House Armed Service Committee Chairman Ike Skelton Monday urged the Iraqi parliament to cancel its planned summer recess.

Skelton, D-Mo., said he is concerned the recess "will show the world that their determination is not as strong as those who are fighting and dying to support their efforts." Skelton noted a number of key legislative items have yet to be addressed in Iraq.

"While U.S. forces remain in Iraq to provide security and training for the Iraqi Security Forces, the key to truly establishing a strong Iraq is political progress. Without reaching agreement on several political benchmarks, including regulating Iraq's oil industry, ending the ban on former Baath party members serving in government jobs and passing constitutional amendments, significant roadblocks to that political progress will remain," Skelton said in a statement.

[done]

 

[cityboy-stl]

Re: Nobody else finds this obcene?

Iraqi parliament's break tests Congress' patience

POSTED: 7:53 a.m. EDT, May 3, 2007


http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/03/congress.iraq.ap/index.html

 

[Centexfarmer]

Re: Nobody else finds this obcene?

Found it!

Iraq Lawmakers' Vacation Plans Draw Fire

What an excellent time to withdraw our troops!

While you're taking your break, having accomplished nothing, we'll be bringing our troops home that have been deployed for up to three times with hardly any time with their families.

Not a matter of of concern for the U.S.?

It's obvious that you've got everything under control since you can take a break!

We'll be taking our leave now!

It's been real, it's been fun, but...oh wait, Bush says that we're staying and he's sending in more troops....never mind.

 

[Fiorino]

Not only did that happen, but a lot of the members of the parliment don't even live in Irac, have homes in other countries where they reside and have their salaries wired to their accounts, and for this we have lost over 3100 troops !!

 

[JackFTwist]

where is Andreus to wonder where the posts are from Larry, Moe, Shemp, and Curly?

 

[JOHN B]

We are bending over backwars to give them a new start and they obviously don't want our help. We REALLY need to get out of there and let them fend for themselves.

 

[radical matt]

Okay...time to come home. Check please.

Screw the timetable, the Dems need to get two bills pushed through Congress now:

1) Funding for the troops, all that they need, NOW.
2) Immediate withdraw from Iraw, NOW.

Done.

where is Andreus to wonder where the posts are from Larry, Moe, Shemp, and Curly?

Wait, am I one of those? Hm...which one, which one...probably Larry. -shrug- I'm simply not mean enough to be Moe and I'm not bald...wait...

 

[Homoerectus]

If the Iraqi parliament is not serious enough about democracy to forego vacation, then we should forego sending money, troops or spedning another American life in their country. Support our Troops! Bring them Home ALIVE, Now !

 

[CGHJ]

Okay...time to come home. Check please.

Screw the timetable, the Dems need to get two bills pushed through Congress now:

1) Funding for the troops, all that they need, NOW.
2) Immediate withdraw from Iraw, NOW.

Done.

Great idea but unfortunately congress can't recall the troops, according to the constitution they can only cut off the money. They can make it illegal for Bush to go to war with Iran without express approval from them, but speaker Pelosi had that removed from the bill.

Of course since the original authorization for the war was specifically contingent on any country being invaded having direct involvement in 9-11, and since it has now been admitted by the administration (as well as well-known to everyone else) that Iraq had nothing whatsoever to do with 9-11, the war itself is illegal and Bush can be impeached for it. Technically.

 

[KennyD]

NOW is the time to again start sending those letters, and faxes as well as bombarding our Representatives and Senators with telephone calls ; not asking .. but DEMANDING an Immediate Withdrawal of American Forces from Iraq ....
I was taught in a Public Relations class years ago that EACH letter etc. received equals 10,000 not sent and these folks know it too ... so for each letter etc that you send ... it is equal to 10,000 American Citizens doing it as well ...
While you are doing this ... send one on down to Pennsylvania Avenue , as well .

 

[Kulindahr]

A real president would tell these jokers, "Fine, go on your vacation. Every day you're gone, we'll take a thousand of our people home -- starting with the ones closest to your parliament building."

More realistically, this would be the perfect moment for Congress to pass a law forbidding the use of National Guard troops overseas except in cases of formally declared wars. That would be fitting -- the Iraqi parliament doesn't want to work to take care of their homeland, so we should bring home our people who signed up to protect our homeland, instead of letting them die overseas.

 

[slobone]

Arianna was great as usual on the "benchmarks". Damn, that woman can write:

Benchmarks: Yet Another Bush Mirage Shimmering in the Iraqi Desert?

The hottest term in post-veto Washington is suddenly "benchmarks." If you had a dollar for every time it's been bandied about his week, you could outbid Rupert Murdoch for the Journal -- or, at least, pay for all the Valium being downed by Deborah Jean Palfrey's clients.

But amidst all the benchmark babble, there has been precious little clarity on whether they represent an acceptable compromise position -- or are just another Bush mirage shimmering in the Iraqi desert.

Thank goodness for Michael Ware, CNN's Baghdad-based war correspondent. Amid the hot air, his reporting is like a bracing splash of ice cold water to the face. A jolt of from-the-belly-of-the-beast reality. A wake-up call delivered via jackhammer. With an Australian accent.

I caught him the other night on Anderson Cooper 360°, discussing the latest from Iraq with Cooper and David Gergen. Now I love David Gergen as a person, but the contrast between his safely-ensconced-in-the-Beltway take on benchmarks and Ware's boots-on-the-ground no-bullshit approach couldn't have been starker.

Here was Ware:

COOPER: Well, Michael Ware, let's talk about those benchmarks... The benchmarks, I guess, are to pressure Maliki. Has pressure worked on him in the past?

WARE: No, never. This is such an old scenario, Anderson. I mean, this word benchmark has been used over and over and over. And no matter what conditions have been set for Maliki to meet, he's never once lived up to them. So, now Washington is trying to up the ante, increase the pressure upon him in what most likely will be the vain hope that he will deliver.

Woosh, sting (that's the sound of ice-water truth hitting face).

He later added this, the verbal equivalent of taking a pair of White House-designed rose-colored glasses and grinding them into the sidewalk with your heel:

COOPER: Is this notion of a unified democracy of Sunni and Shia, is there any real support for it within the Iraqi government?

WARE: No, no, none that I have seen, Anderson. And I have dealt a lot with all of the important factions within the Iraqi government. It's simply in no one's interest whatsoever to pursue a true reconciliation.

Then there was Gergen, and this gem of mealy-mouthed waffling:

GERGEN: While the benchmarks may seem like sort of a Washington game, in some ways, they're a very important prelude to the United States beginning to look for a way to disengage.

A prelude to beginning to look for a way to disengage?

In other words, let's wait until September to see how things are going, then, if this latest in a long line of unmet benchmarks also goes unmet, we can begin to commence to initiate the starting of thinking about the mulling over of the consideration of a possible path that could, in time, lead us to begin to commence to start looking for a means that could, with any luck, result in America beginning to commence to start withdrawing from Iraq. Eventually.

The truth is, we keep putting forth key benchmarks for the Iraqis -- on Iraqi troops, on oil revenue sharing, on reversing De-Baathification, on amending Iraq's new constitution -- and they keep failing to meet them. Time after time after time.

Democrats mustn't fall prey to the benchmark mirage. They need to stay strong and keep the heat on Bush. Perhaps they can put Michael Ware's reports on tape and have them piped into their Congressional offices.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/benchmarks-yet-another-b_b_47573.html

 

[radical matt]

Great idea but unfortunately congress can't recall the troops, according to the constitution they can only cut off the money. They can make it illegal for Bush to go to war with Iran without express approval from them, but speaker Pelosi had that removed from the bill.

Of course since the original authorization for the war was specifically contingent on any country being invaded having direct involvement in 9-11, and since it has now been admitted by the administration (as well as well-known to everyone else) that Iraq had nothing whatsoever to do with 9-11, the war itself is illegal and Bush can be impeached for it. Technically.

If they have the authority to pass a "timetable", at the end of which the troops are recalled, then they apparently have the authority to recall the troops...essentially, just a timetable of -1 seconds would do it.

Impeaching Bush? That's retarded at this point. Bush isn't important. What IS important is that our troops are over there trying to help people that apparently don't give a crap about their own nation (after all, they live outside the country anyway, apparently.) I'm not talking about illegality or about Bush, I'm saying if the Iraqi leadership doesn't care about their own nation, then there's no reason for us to be there anymore. Partisinship and impeachment aren't necessary, but getting our people back safely since the Iraqi leadership doesn't care enough to do their cushy jobs in a timely maner, then there's no reason to bother with them.

If that's how they wanna run things, fine, but they don't need us there for them to take vacations. We can just let their people who we've trained take care of their security and let the work with their insane imams on their own.

 

[radical matt]

Arianna was great as usual on the "benchmarks". Damn, that woman can write:

Benchmarks: Yet Another Bush Mirage Shimmering in the Iraqi Desert?

>snip<

Wait, I'm confused, isn't it the Democrats that are pressing for benchmarks to be met in their timetable legislation? I'm not certain how that makes it a "Bush Mirage"...

 

[Kulindahr]

It occurs to me that Maliki et al. are playing Bush just like other tribal leaders -- and he is one -- used to play the British: you accept the position of power, and its attendant privileges; you play at making progress.... but you don't really make progress, because then you'd have to do the work, your imperial sponsor wouldn't be there to hold your hand and make you look important....

 

[NickCole]

If they have the authority to pass a "timetable", at the end of which the troops are recalled, then they apparently have the authority to recall the troops...essentially, just a timetable of -1 seconds would do it.

Democratic Congress can PASS it but Bush has to SIGN it.

That's what his VETO is about. Nothing that Congress passes can happen unless the President signs it.

Of course Congress could OVER RIDE Bush's stupid veto but that would require the support of BushRepublican Congresspeople. And that won't happen because BushRepublicans don't do the right thing.

 

[NickCole]

As to this Iraqi vacation thing -- it's typical.

Anybody who's shocked has not been paying attention.

The whole point our Democratic Congresspeople have been trying to make --and it's what's written into the legislation Bush just vetoed-- is that timetables are necessary because the Iraqi government is not accomplishing what it should. The timetables are specifically tied to Iraqi government accomplishment -- if they meet certain goals then the timetables are moved.

Bush & Co and their supporters keep saying send more troops, send more money (because they're free spending warmongers) but they refuse to substantively address the political and governmental elements that are the only ways to bring stability to Iraq. One of the problems with BushRepublicans is they like war too much and deaths of non-white non-Americans on non-American soil doesn't mean squat to them.

 

[slobone]

Wait, I'm confused, isn't it the Democrats that are pressing for benchmarks to be met in their timetable legislation? I'm not certain how that makes it a "Bush Mirage"...

Well she's very critical of the Dems in Congress as well (as am I). They still don't get it about Iraq.