Posted on 07/25/2006 4:46:15 PM PDT by billstone
Another thorny subject is amnesty for Iraqi insurgents, an idea that Mr. Maliki has made the centerpiece of his political program. He has to balance demands by some Iraqi leaders to give amnesty to insurgents who have attacked American troops, with fervent opposition from American politicians to any such policy.
"I personally think whoever kills an American soldier in defense of his country would have a statue built for him in that country," the speaker of Parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a conservative Sunni Arab, said at a news conference on Saturday. "The parties that we cannot conciliate with are those who deliberately killed an Iraqi citizen."
Tensions have also risen over Mr. Maliki's break with President Bush on the Israeli assault in Lebanon. Iraq, a predominantly Shiite nation, has denounced Israel's retaliation against Hezbollah, a militant Shiite group supported by Iran. By contrast, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, predominantly Sunni Arab nations, have been restrained.
By siding with Hezbollah, Mr. Maliki stands to gain popular support here. On Monday he delivered his strongest condemnation yet of Israel in a radio interview with BBC in London, where he was meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"I can't find enough justification for what is happening," Mr. Maliki said. "The destruction of the infrastructure is not even consistent with the rules of war, even if we can say there is a war. I will talk about the issue in a way that we try to reach a cease-fire and start negotiations."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Leave it to the NY Times to shit on this historic event. What idiotic quislings.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's parliament speaker Thursday accused "Jews" of financing acts of violence in Iraq in order to discredit Islamists who control the parliament and government so they can install their "agents" in power.
Mahmoud al-Mashhadani hinted that the Americans and Israelis did not want to see officials of Sunni and Shi'ite parties running the country because "this is not their agenda."
"They will say that we brought you in a democratic way to the government but you are sectarian people. One of you is killing the other and you don't deserve to become leaders because you are war lords," al-Mashhadani told reporters after a parliament meeting.
Al-Mashhadani is a member of the Sunni Muslim Iraqi Accordance Front while Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is a member of the Shi'ite Dawa party.
"Some people say 'we saw you beheading, kidnappings and killing. In the end we even started kidnapping women who are our honor,"' al-Mashhadani said. "These acts are not the work of Iraqis. I am sure that he who does this is a Jew and the son of a Jew."
"I can tell you about these Jewish, Israelis and Zionists who are using Iraqi money and oil to frustrate the Islamic movement in Iraq and come with the agent and cheap project."
"No one deserves to rule Iraq other than Islamists," he said.
By "agents," he appeared to be referring to secular politicians who do not identify themselves with religious or ethnic communities.
Considering Iraq was recently ruled by a dictator who supported suicide bombers, we've come a long way. The Times is doing all it can to erode support for democracy in Iraq. Just more meaningless talking points for cocktail hour in the Hamptons.
Listen newbie, in addition to having radical sunnis in parliament, there are radical Sadrites. But there are also secularists, kurds and Shiites that support al-Maliki. What is your point?
Pat Buchanan must be writing that guy's speeches.
Do you not find the Iraqi Parliament Speaker's statements offensive?
Somehow I think Iran is having a good laugh at American expense.
I find all islamo fascists as needing a dirt nap. Not "offended", just detemined to crush this poison ideology.
But there are plenty of good guys in Iraq. Their army has been performing very well. Al-Maliki's predecessor, Allawi is great. Go read what the al-Maliki said today in his press conference. I don't expect him or any arabs to love Israel, I just expect them to understand its right to exist and not support terrorism. That is good enough. And no-one on the planet has his hands as full of terrorists as al-Maliki does right now. We won't be asked to leave Iraq anytime soon.
I also liked Allawi a lot. He was the ideal Prime Minister from America's point of view. I think his moderate party got around 6 per cent of the Iraqi vote.
The average Iraqi is much more radical than we American swould like to believe. The Kurds really appreciate the United States. The others for the most part are using us for their own purposes . . .or fighting us outright.
Not true. You need to read alot better sources than the NY Times. It's simply breathtaking the progress that has been made in most of the country.
The militias are a much larger threat to Iraqis than they are to our men, and there has been a pretty consistent bloodletting in the sunni triangle for many months.
Start looking for and reading the posts from Sandrat and Gucho to get a more balanced idea of the progress and how the Iraqi people think about us gringos.
Thanks for the PLUG.
Thank you pissant.
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