Iraq: More al Malaki Malarky

[NNN0LHI]

http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2006/8/8/14103/36497

It looks like Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki doesn't like the way U.S. troops are helping him get control of Baghdad.

Last week, Malaki came to Washington and begged the U.S. Congress to stay the course in Iraq. He and young Mister Bush agreed to send more American troops to Baghdad to restore order there.

Now Malaki is unhappy with the way U.S. troops are restoring order.

Under the fold: theater of war and theater of the absurd...


Commentary :: ::

From Qassim Abdul-Zahra of AP:

Iraq 's prime minister sharply criticized a U.S.-Iraqi attack Monday on a Shiite militia stronghold in Baghdad, breaking with his American partners on security tactics as the United States launches a major operation to secure the capital...

...Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's criticism followed a pre-dawn air and ground attack on an area of Sadr City, stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia.

Police said three people, including a woman and a child, were killed in the raid, which the U.S. command said was aimed at "individuals involved in punishment and torture cell activities"...

..."Reconciliation cannot go hand in hand with operations that violate the rights of citizens this way," al-Maliki said in a statement on government television...

...{Malaki} apologized to the Iraqi people for the operation and said "this won't happen again."


The situation in Iraq has gone from ridiculous to sublimely absurd. First, Malaki established his reconciliation plan that offers amnesty to insurgents whose only "crime" has been to fight U.S. and other coalition occupation forces. Then he came to the U.S. and begged Congress to keep American occupation forces in his country, and asked Mister Bush to move more of them into Baghdad, where they would help fight insurgent forces who, theoretically, will be eligible for pardons afterward.

Now he's telling U.S. troops how he does and doesn't want them to conduct operations aimed at bringing Baghdad under control.

Th-Th-Th That's Not All, Folks!

[Hissyspit]

1. Try saying that subject line three times fast!