A Majority Of Iraq's Parliament Sign Bill For Withdrawal Of US Troops From Iraq

[kpete]

Iraqi Lawmakers Back Bill on U.S. Withdrawal

By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, May 11, 2007; Page A12

BAGHDAD, May 10 -- A majority of members of Iraq's parliament have signed a draft bill that would require a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Iraq and freeze current troop levels. The development was a sign of a growing division between Iraq's legislators and prime minister that mirrors the widening gulf between the Bush administration and its critics in Congress.

The draft bill proposes a timeline for a gradual departure, much like what some U.S. Democratic lawmakers have demanded, and would require the Iraqi government to secure parliament's approval before any further extensions of the U.N. mandate for foreign troops in Iraq, which expires at the end of 2007.


"We haven't asked for the immediate withdrawal of multinational forces; we asked that we should build our security forces and make them qualified, and at that point there would be a withdrawal," said Bahaa al-Araji, a member of parliament allied with the anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose supporters drafted the bill. "But no one can accept the occupation of his country."

more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/10/AR2007051000387.html?hpid=topnews

[kevinmc]

1. Washington Post Still still in Hiding Stories mode ...Page A12 .... n/t

[wtmusic]

2. So to keep the war cooking at a slow simmer

we need to make sure Iraq's security forces are always falling just a bit...short.

Sorry Iraq, but there are a few souvenirs we want to take home with us.