http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2007/Septe
mber/focusoniraq_September25.xml§ion=focusoniraq
states unequivocatingly that "Iraq's parliament reconvened on Tuesday after a month-long summer recess. It has not yet passed any of the benchmark laws, including measures that would equitably share oil revenues, ease restrictions on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party holding public office, and set a date for provincial elections.
Lawmakers complain the government has yet to submit the draft laws to them.
Parliament adjourned after about 90 minutes after lawmakers asked for time to read 10 bills that had been presented for their consideration, lawmaker Hussein
Al Falluji told Reuters. The 10 bills did not include any of the benchmark laws."
W's bleating about waiting until the Petraeus report becomes available is blatantly idiotic. There is no movement towards reaching the benchmarks, and there won't be.
The article "Bush faces political clash over war plan" at
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070905/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq;_ylt=AjLs9zIvzwwAv_4f2ea
JQ82yFz4D
makes that clear point that "In a report released Tuesday, the Government
Accountability Office found that Iraq had met only three of its 18 political and security goals, partially met four and failed to meet 11 of its benchmarks.
In his Senate testimony, Comptroller General David Walker said the Congress
should ask itself what it wants to achieve in Iraq and can do so realistically. After determining the goal, the U.S. could better reassess what the goal should be of U.S. forces, he said.
Walker also challenged a key assertion by the administration in the war, that improved security made in the Sunni-dominated Anbar province was indicative of overall progress in Iraq. Walker warned that the success in Anbar may be isolated.
"It's not Baghdad," he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "I mean,
Baghdad is a separate province unto itself and that's the particularly acute situation right now."
Not only is Anbar not Baghdad, but the Sunni local tribes turned against the
Islamic extremists of al Qaida in Iraq before the surge occurred. The majority sect, the Shiites, have every reason to be against the US arming the Sunni as they have been foes throughout history.
To Rove's best pupil-big bro 43, US interests in the world don't matter as much as permanent GOP advantage and the Countdown with Keith Olbermann Comment "Bush just playing us with 'troop withdrawal'" at
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20593445/
states about the evil brute in the White House "He presumably did not know that there had already appeared those damning excerpts from Robert Draper's book "Dead Certain."
"I'm playing for October-November," Mr. Bush said to Draper. That, evidently, is the time during which, he thinks he can sell us the real plan, which is "to get us in a position where the presidential candidates will be comfortable about sustaining a presence."
Comfortable, that is, with saying about Iraq, again quoting the President,
"stay... longer."
W's concern is palming this failed Iraq policy off on the next President so that W can pretend his legacy isn't tarnished. With all of the conversation of his weeping and this purely narcissistic personality that W exhibits, while our soldiers are dying, you get the idea that W has regressed to 2 or 3 years old when his dreams were reality and he didn't realize that he was indeed a lazy lout.
What does the world think of W?
The article "Try Bush for war crimes, urges US combat veteran" at
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22363896-26397,00.html
shows what this Australian opinion piece considers W to be as it states "
GEORGE W. Bush should be tried as a war criminal for his role in launching the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the Howard Government is culpable for supporting him, a US anti-war activist claims.
The US President and John Howard were committed to a failing war that was being waged for oil and economic motives, former US marine and two-time combat tour veteran Matt Howard said in Sydney yesterday....
Mr. Bush should be tried for crimes against humanity over the killing of the tens of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children who were victims of the war, Mr. Howard said."
The Raw Story article "Australian police warn of full-scale riot over Bush visit" at
http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Australian_police_warn_of_riot_over_0905.html
states "The largest protest so far during US President George W. Bush's visit to Sydney ended peacefully Wednesday, but police predicted a "full-scale riot" later in the week."
Big bro 43 doesn't let external reality interfere with his propaganda. He is cursed by Australian, accused of being a war criminal and how does he respond?
The article "Iraq war remains winnable" at
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22370969-31477,00.html
has the caricature of an idealized version of John Wayne, W stating "The war in Iraq is winnable and declaring he would not have deployed US troops to the theatre unless victory was assured."
Lying about Anbar province, which eight months ago had been written off by
experts as lost to al-Qa'ida in Iraq militants he smirked "The province I saw wasn't lost to the extremists. The place I went had changed dramatically - fundamentally because the local people took a look at what al-Qa'ida stands for, and said: 'We're not interested in death and destruction'...
As the Commander-in-Chief of our military, I cannot commit US troops into combat unless I'm convinced it's worth it, important to the security of the United States, and we can meet our objectives.
The security situation is changing. That is the briefing I received from David Petraeus, our general on the ground.
He says the security situation is changing so that reconciliation can take place. I met with sheiks that are tired of violence. They are reconciling. They are reconciling after decades of tyranny."
Makes you proud to be an American doesn't it? We have a chump, whose only goal for the Iraq war is dragging the next President into it, lying about non-successes. Haven't we learned from "Mission Accomplished"?
From the September 05, 2007 "Informed Comment" at
http://www.juancole.com/
we learn that "The LAT reports on the reconvening of the Iraqi parliament with only 151 MPs in attendance. They don't appear ready to do any real business. Some Sadrists called for an investigation of the attack they alleged was launched on the Mahdi Army at Karbala last week. (In all likelihood, it was the other way around). They said Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki himself should be investigated....
Al-Hayat says that the US military is arming tribal militias in the 'triangle of
death' south of Baghdad, with the cooperation of Sunni guerrilla groups such as the Army of Islam, the 1920 Revolution Brigades, and the Army of Holy Warriors
(i.e. the very guerrilla groups that had earlier fought the US and Iraqi troops).
The al-Maliki government takes a dim view of the new US policy of promoting
Sunni Arab militias, for fear that eventually they will turn on the Baghdad
government."
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