Iraqi Parliament Voted — They Want Us Out!

While we dicker back and forth in Congress about what to do about Iraq, and while Bush is digging in with veto after veto stating that if we leave chaos will follow, it was reported on AlterNet that the Iraqi parliament, for the first time, had a majority vote on a timetable for US troop withdraw from their country. This non-binding petition was signed by the 144 parliament members on Tuesday. "The next goal is to 'present the petition, which is nonbinding, to the speaker of the Iraqi parliament and demand that a binding measure be put to a vote.' " Now isn't it strange that we didn't hear a peep about this? I would call this a significant development demanding some sort of news coverage. Again, if this is a sovereign country who has a democratically elected parliament, which was the alleged main reason for this war, why don't we recognize their government's vote? If they don't want us there, why the hell are we staying? What's even more scary is this is not the first time?

According to a news release on Think Progress, on "June 2006, Rubaie was calling for a significant troop reduction. He wrote in the Washington Post, 'We envisage the U.S. troop presence by year's end [2006] to be under 100,000, with most of the remaining troops to return home by the end of 2007.' Rubaie's call for 'more patience' is increasingly out of touch with Iraqi opinion."

What has allowed this to happen for so long is that the lawmakers who are demanding an end to the occupation now have the upper hand in the Iraqi legislature for the first time. Previous attempts at a similar resolution fell just short of the 138 votes needed to pass. What's interesting is that getting anything done in this parliament is difficult because there are 275 members but many have fled the country's civil conflict and it has been difficult to even obtain a quorum to pass resolutions. We expect them to work to reconcile the warring religious sects, divide the vast oil revenues between the parties and vote on a new constitution, when they can't even get their act together enough to decide whether they want us there or not? They sound like our Congress where nothing ever gets done.

Another thing that has developed in Iraq that just doesn't get any news attention is that there is an upcoming political showdown in Iraq. According to the Daily Kos article:

"The major schism in Iraqi politics is not between Sunni and Shia or supporters of the Iraqi government and anti-government forces, nor is it a clash of moderates against radicals; the defining battle for Iraq at the political level today is between nationalists trying to hold the Iraqi state together and separatists backed, so far, by the United States and Britain."

So, let's take a closer look at this development. We invaded Iraq ostensibly due to WMDs but in actuality, the Neocons wanted to export democracy to Iraq. We storm in, kick out Saddam (who managed very well to hold the country together and suppress sectarian violence by the way), install a "democratic" government and then ignore it, only to have it all fall apart because they can't decide whether they want to remain one nation or separate states? Why can't we just let them make that determination? If it's not really the sectarian divide but more of a constitutional fuss, we need to just let them get on with it and decide their own future.

I will NEVER understand Bush and Co.'s logic in this whole mess, but I guess that's the point, there is no logic. It's all decision by emotion. It's all about what "we" think is best, what "we" think they need and by golly, we're going to give it to them whether they want it or not. Yet, let's just go on ignoring their little votes in parliament and "stay the course", playing human targets for the angry mobs. After all, if they have Americans around the corner that they can kill over there, they won't need to come to Wall Street and kill us here (as espoused by conservative Fox News pundit Dick Morris).

Maybe that's the real strategy all along. At least there is some logic to it; however, abhorrent it is. My only question is, "When will we stop deciding Iraq's fate, and let them run their own government?" We are not only in the way but we are seriously aggravating the whole situation and this isn't just in Iraq, it's the whole Middle East.