Posted on 05/20/2006 4:00:14 AM PDT by RobFromGa
BAGHDAD, Iraq Iraq's parliament approved the country's new Cabinet Saturday, opening the way for the inauguration of a national unity government three years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.
Incoming Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki told the 275-member parliament that he would make restoring stability and security the top priority of his new administration.
Approval of the Cabinet is the final stage in formation of a national unity government the United States hopes can calm the violence raging in the country.
< snip > The 37-member Cabinet took months of negotiations to form after the Dec. 15 elections and is Iraq's first constitutional government since the fall of Saddam.
"This is a historic day for Iraq and all its people," deputy parliament speaker Khalid al-Attiyah said in a nationally televised news conference before the session began. "This government represents all Iraqis."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
This is great news, and a further testimony to several things that we should remember:
1. Worthwhile things often take time.
2. Even if the media chooses not to report positive developments, that doesn't stop them from happening.
3. History will be the judge of this Administration, not Wolf Blitzer and Nancy Pelosi.
It's probably too much to hope that maybe the MSM will report this all day, or that it will be in the newspapers tomorrow morning.
I think they will concentrate on any violence that happens, and start talking about how the new government hasn't made Iraq as safe as Bismarck, ND yet, and should be therefore considered a failure and disbanded.
That's why I get my news on the Internet and not from the Driveby Media.
But the media will suppress it.
A sample of current headlines:
Iraq gets new government as bombs kill 24
Iraq forms government but security posts unfilled
Bombs kill 24 in Iraq ahead of vote on govt
Iraqi Cabinet selection skips 2 key ministries
Blasts rock Iraq ahead of vote on govt
Sad, isn't it?
We do get the paper to keep up with local news but I rarely read anything in it on national or international news. It's a joke, really. My wife will be reading it and ask me about soemthing, and most of the time I'll have to tell her it's old news that happened a few days ago. We also have a problem with our papers reprinting NY Times stories that are often wrong or biased.
No pics or bio of new PM
(We're not crazy about that word around here.)
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's prime minister-designate will use his birth name, Nouri al-Maliki, rather than the one he took in exile during Saddam Hussein's regime, his office announced Wednesday.
The statement said al-Maliki no longer needed to use the name Jawad al-Maliki, which was adopted "during the time of his struggle against the dictatorship to prevent any harm from coming to his family."
Al-Maliki, a Shiite Muslim politician who was tapped as prime minister Saturday, fled Iraq in 1979 after he was sentenced to death by Saddam's regime for his activities with the opposition Shiite Dawa Party. Al-Maliki stayed in Iran until 1990, when he moved to Syria.
He took the first name Jawad in honor of Mohammad al-Jawad, a revered Shiite figure whose shrine is in Baghdad.
There had been some confusion among Iraqis over what to call al-Maliki.
On Saturday, President Jalal Talabani stumbled at first when announcing his designation as prime minister, starting to call him Jawad, then switching to his full birth name, Nouri Kamel al-Maliki.
With a laugh, Talabani also called al-Maliki by the name many of his friends use Abu Israa, which is Arabic for "father of Israa," the name of one of his three daughters.
Here, let me just make it easy for CNN, the newspapers et al, with some headlines they can use:
IEDs Exploding on Every Street and Road in the Country
Mortars and Rockets Flying Indiscriminately All Over the Place
Iraq Civil War Picks Up Pace and Spreads Into Turkey and Kuwait
Baghdad in Flames
Anbar Province Completely In Hands of Zarqawi
And their very favorite one:
Iraq Gripped by Quagmire and Death Stalks and People Flee
Early life
Nouri Kamel al-Maliki[1] was born in Al Hindiyah (Hindiya), a southern Iraqi town lying between Karbala and Al Hillah. [2][3][4] Al-Maliki's B.A. is from the Usul al-Din College in Baghdad, a seminary founded in 1964 by clerical Dawa leader Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr. He also holds a master's degree in Arabic literature. Al-Maliki lived for a time in Al Hillah, where he worked in the education department. He joined the Islamic Dawa Party while studying at university.
[edit]
Exile
In 1980, the Saddam Hussein government sentenced al-Maliki to death for his activism in the Dawa party. Thereafter, he lived in exile, first in Iran and later in Syria. In Syria, he headed the party's Jihad Office, a branch responsible for directing activists and guerrillas fighting Saddam Hussein's regime from outside of Iraq. He was elected chairman of the Joint Action Committee, a Damascus-based opposition coalition that led to the founding of the Iraqi National Congress, a United States-backed body of opposition to the Saddam Hussein regime which the Dawa Party participated in between 1992 and 1995. While in exile, al-Maliki adopted the pseudonym "Jawad", which he used until after his return to Iraq.
[edit]
Return to Iraq
Returning home after Saddam's fall, he became the deputy leader of the De-Baathification Commission of the Iraqi Interim Government, formed to purge former Baath Party officials from the military and government. Many Sunni Arabs deeply resented the commission, viewing it as part of a Shi'a conspiracy to take power in Iraq, even though the Baath Party officials affected came from both the Shi'a and Sunni communities.
Al-Maliki was elected to the transitional National Assembly in January 2005. He was considered a tough negotiator in drawn-out deliberations over the new constitution, and was the senior Shi'ite member of the committee that drafted the new constitution that was passed in October 2005 over Sunni Arab objections. He resisted U.S. efforts to put more Sunnis on the drafting committee, as well as Sunni efforts to water down provisions giving wide autonomy to Shiite and Kurdish regions in the north and south.
[edit]
Prime Minister nomination
Al-Maliki became the United Iraqi Alliance's candidate for the prime minister of Iraq's first full-term government in April 2006, after Ibrahim al-Jaafari was removed as the candidate due to opposition from Sunni and Kurdish factions. On April 22, 2006, he was named prime minister-designate by President Jalal Talabani.
United States Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, has stated that "[Maliki's] reputation is as someone who is independent of Iran," and that "He sees himself as an Arab" and an Iraqi nationalist. Khalilzad also maintained that Iran "pressured everyone for Jaafari to stay." Maliki's nomination is seen as a victory for Khalilzad's negotiating efforts. Khalilzad praised Iraqi statesmen, saying "It showed that Sistani doesn't take Iranian direction. It showed that Abdul Aziz Hakim doesn't succumb to Iranian pressure. He stood up to Iran. It showed the same thing about the Kurdish leaders."[2] This interpretation reflects the position of the U.S. Government.
According to Juan Cole's expert assessment[5], hopes for a breakthrough hinge on the assumption that al-Maliki will be able to act more decisively than his failed predecessor, Ibrahim Jaffari, in crucial areas: putting together a government acceptable to all the parties and disbanding the militias), restoring basic social services, and resolving the question of federalism. Al-Maliki seems more aware than Jaffari of the urgency of these problems, but the problem is, they are basically beyond his ability to solve. Despite the hype around the formation of a new government, there is not much hope that it will make a serious difference. Al-Maliki is apparently doomed to preside over heavy violence, he can only hope to make some difference. The increasing Shiite hostilityto the occupation will make the question of ending the occupation even more urgent.
from Wikipedia
Heh...De-Baathification...definitely a dirty job, but somebody had to do it.
Congratulations to Nouri al-Maliki and the people of Iraq for heartening progress under difficult circumstances. They all show the world that freedom is worth everything. The USA and our allies in Iraq can be very proud today.
A few more real headlines from around the globe:
Parliament approves Iraq's new government, despite more violence
Iraq's parliament gathers despite violence
Iraq is disintegrating as ethnic cleansing takes hold
Iraqis agree on new government but doubts about future remain
They just don't know when to give it a rest, do they?
You're so right that we have to keep things in perspective. Twenty years from now, Nancy Pelosi and Wolf Blitzer will be completely forgotten.
I've seen plenty of media bias, but that is pretty extreme! It's an article from the London Independant. Yeah, the situation is bad, and Iraq isn't the safest place in the world (but neither is the United States!), but I think that's an exaggeration. Big time.
Did you read that list? It makes you want to weep with joy. I wonder if the Shiia in charge of education is one of Sadar's boys? I noticed that they created another post, Misister of Higher Education, and it belongs to a Sunni. Nice job.
Thanks for the nice response to a request for bio an pics. You guys could quit your day jobs and work for wire services. It would be better.
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