Iraq Demands United States form a more inclusive government

Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, expressing 

dismay at failure of US democracy

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki spoke for his parliament and cabinet today when he urged the United States to form a more inclusive government that was responsive to more than just the minority of extremely wealthy individuals.

"Polls show less than half of Americans approve of President Obama's performance, record public distrust of the US Congress, and little change economic, trade, budget, tax, and foreign policy regardless of which of the two major parties is in control of the White House or Congress," said Maliki.

"Further, recent studies have shown that American politicians are far more responsive to wealthy donors and past and future employers or business cronies than they are to their constituents even when what the wealthy want conflicts with the wishes of their constituents or actually harms them," he added.

"Therefore, for the stability of the United States and because of the effect their large economy and military presence has on the rest of the world, we ask that they dissolve their government and reconstitute a "salvation government"  that is more inclusive of the vast majority and their economic interests and diminishes the influence of money in policy-making, whether through the inclusion of smaller parties or establishing means of direct democracy at the national level or whatever it takes," he concluded.

Maliki went on to say that the United States could learn from Iraq's mistakes before the US suffers an insurgency of its own.

Maliki could not resist ending on an ironic note. 

"You know, the US could even learn a thing or two about democracy from us. The American people wanted to end their government's occupation of Iraq almost as much as Iraqis did.   The Iraqi government responded appropriately, negotiating for the withdrawal of foreign troops, while the US negotiated fiercely to keep troops in the country and now looks for a way to reintroduce them, despite 72% of Americans saying the war was not worth it.  If you think that's democracy, then Iraq still has some hidden WMD's I'd like to sell you."

US Military Finds All Iraqi Groups Blame U.S. Invasion for Violence

Every poll taken of Iraqis has said essentially the same thing.

What Iraqis Want

More Professor Smartass on Iraqi opinion

The news here is that these results come from focus groups conducted by the US military.

So if your righty friends disagree with this, you can tell them they are calling the troops liars.

The other significant thing is that the military has signed contracts with Gallup to do four polls a month. Both Republicans and most Democrats in Congress have either been silent about what the Iraqis think of our occupation or blatantly lied.

The related lie is that Iraq must be divided to restore peace and that Iraqis want that. Polls show most Iraqis want ONE country, and much of the sectarian violence is likely instigated by Saudi foreign fighters, since more come from Saudi than almost all other countries combined according to Israeli and Saudi studies.


Clearly, the Iraqis want us to leave, Americans overwhelmingly want us to leave, and the military is publicizing data that makes the case for pulling out.

Who exactly are we teaching democracy by staying?

KEY EXCERPTS:

washingtonpost.com
All Iraqi Groups Blame U.S. Invasion for Discord, Study Shows

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 19, 2007; A14


Iraqis of all sectarian and ethnic groups believe that the U.S. military invasion is the primary root of the violent differences among them, and see the departure of "occupying forces" as the key to national reconciliation, according to focus groups conducted for the U.S. military last month.

That is good news, according to a military analysis of the results. At the very least, analysts optimistically concluded, the findings indicate that Iraqis hold some "shared beliefs" that may eventually allow them to surmount the divisions that have led to a civil war.

***
Even though members of the military "understand the limitations" of polling data, Rapp said, "subjective measures" are an important part of the mix. In July, the military signed a contract with Gallup for four public opinion polls a month in Iraq: three nationwide and one in Baghdad. Lincoln Group, which has conducted surveys for the military since shortly after the invasion, received a year-long contract in January to conduct focus groups.

Outside of the military, some of the most widespread polling in Iraq has been done by D3 Systems, a Virginia-based company that maintains offices in each of Iraq's 18 provinces. Its most recent publicly released surveys, conducted in September for several news media organizations, showed the same widespread Iraqi belief voiced by the military's focus groups: that a U.S. departure will make things better. A State Department poll in September 2006 reported a similar finding.

Matthew Warshaw, a senior research manager at D3, said that despite security improvements, polling in Iraq remains difficult. "While violence has gone down, one of the ways it has been achieved is by effectively separating people. That means mobility is limited, with roadblocks by the U.S. and Iraqi military or local militias," Warshaw said in an interview.

FULL TEXT

Iraqi parliament demands vote to end occupation

The Iraqi parliament seems to understand democracy better than our congress.

They demanded the authority to approve or disapprove of extending the occupation in December, and plan not to renew it. If they did renew, it would only be in exchange for a binding timeline for withdrawal.

From the Al Jazeera article:

Iraqi politicians have passed a resolution requiring the government to seek parliamentary permission before asking the UN to extend the mandate for US-led forces in Iraq.

The measure was approved on Tuesday and reflects a growing disenchantment with the US-backed government.

The Sadrist-drafted resolution passed with a vote of 85 to 59.

The members of parliament voted along party lines, with Sunnis joining the bloc loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shia leader, and another Shia party at odds with the leadership.

FULL TEXT

From Alternet.org:

...lawmakers reached in Baghdad today said that they do in fact plan on blocking the extension of the coalition's mandate when it comes up for renewal six months from now.

Reached today by phone in Baghdad, Nassar al Rubaie, the head of Al-Sadr bloc in Iraq's Council of Representatives, said, "This new binding resolution will prevent the government from renewing the U.N. mandate without the parliament's permission. They'll need to come back to us by the end of the year, and we will definitely refuse to extend the U.N. mandate without conditions." Rubaie added: "There will be no such a thing as a blank check for renewing the U.N. mandate anymore, any renewal will be attached to a timetable for a complete withdrawal."

FULL TEXT

Associated Press story on vote
(insulting to Iraqis)




iraq parliament timetable iraq war pullout president george w bush occupation colonialism withdrawal professor smartass iraq corporation democracy war on terror worst president ever failure war criminal smartass comments resistance censored news

POLL: Iraqis want US out of Iraq

I missed this PIPA poll when it came out in September 2006.

The results are pretty straight forward, and despite the foreign policy establishments talking point about civil war and an even greater bloodbath after the US pulls out, Shia and Sunni Iraqis seem to roughly agree on wanting the US out and agree that it will result in a more peaceful Iraq. They also agree that we won't leave even if asked to.

All charts from PIPA.








The numbers in this chart shows the difference between January and September 2006. Most troubling is that the Shia (the largest ethnic group in Iraq) went from a minority approving of attacks on US forces to a solid 62% majority.



Link to PIPA poll report

What Iraqis think of Bush's OIL THEFT law he is forcing on them

Earlier polls of Iraqis on the occupation

99% of Iraqis vs. "elected" liars

One percent of Iraqis say occupation is making them safer in a recent British intel commissioned poll. That's probably less than the margin of error.

Past polls have shown similar overwhelming opposition to the occupation:
http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2005/07/if-were-teaching-iraqis-democracy-what.html

There are two depressing implications to this story.

One is that the elected prime minister of Iraq begs us to stay in the same in article, leading me to wonder how legitimate their democracy is when their leader can ignore numbers like this.

Worse, is what it says about our democracy. I expect Republicans to support the war. That is what they are paid to do. But I do not expect Democrats to not only ignore the wishes of the American people about pulling out of Iraq, but also lie to us about the situation there as Sen. Carl Levin did yesterday in this LA Times story:

The Michigan senator, who is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a frequent visitor to Iraq, said that one of the few points on which the main Iraqi ethnic and sectarian political groups agree was that all want U.S. forces to remain in the country. The Bush administration should use that consensus to forge political compromise, Levin argued.

FULL TEXT OF LA TIMES ARTICLE

It is not enough to vote for Democrats and expect everything will be swell. While they will be better on civil rights and domestic policy, in foreign policy, the leaders of the party seem just as eager to use our tax dollars to steal and kill for corporate America, actions we do not profit from in any way.

KEY EXCERPTS:

Secret MoD poll: Iraqis support attacks on British troops
By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
(Filed: 23/10/2005)

Millions of Iraqis believe that suicide attacks against British troops are justified, a secret military poll commissioned by senior officers has revealed.

• Forty-five per cent of Iraqis believe attacks against British and American troops are justified - rising to 65 per cent in the British-controlled Maysan province;

• 82 per cent are "strongly opposed" to the presence of coalition troops;

• less than one per cent of the population believes coalition forces are responsible for any improvement in security;

• 67 per cent of Iraqis feel less secure because of the occupation;

That appears to have failed, with the poll showing that 71 per cent of people rarely get safe clean water, 47 per cent never have enough electricity, 70 per cent say their sewerage system rarely works and 40 per cent of southern Iraqis are unemployed.

But Iraq's President Jalal Talabani pleaded last night for British troops to stay. "There would be chaos and perhaps civil war," he said. "We are now fighting a world war launched by terrorists against civilisation, against democracy, against progress, against all the values of humanity.

"If British troops withdrew, the terrorists would say, 'Look, we have imposed our will on the most accomplished armed forces in the world and terror is the way to oblige the Europeans to surrender to us'."

FULL TEXT

iraq war wmd terrorism oil cindy sheehan president george w bush fascist real reasons telegraph dlc democratic leadership council republican GOPconservative corruption occupation halliburton colonialism white mans burden professor smartass iraq democrat lies peak oil propaganda corporation fascism democracy political opinion george w bush, war on terror, muslim, public opinion, opinion, public relations, foreign policy, al qaeda terrorist Secret MoD poll: Iraqis support attacks on British troops, worst president ever failure war criminal