Picture of the Day - 3
I believe the signs translate, "Welcome, Liberators," but I can't make them out through the burning effigies.
Followers of radical anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr burn effigies as they rally in Karbala, Wednesday, May 9, 2007. Hundreds gathered to protest against U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to Iraq. (AP Photo/Ghassan al-Yasiri)
(There were several other protests in Baghdad and elsewhere.)
posted by mikevotes at
3:33 PM
6 Comments:
I think we are quickly getting to the point where every faction in the Iraqi government believes its fortunes will be better served if the US military pulls out. Eventually even "our" guys are going to get sick and tired of getting dicked around by, well, Dick.
At this point it should be painfully clear to Americans that Bush's puffery on Iraq has nothing to do with Iraqis and everything to do with his own personal demons.
By
-epm, at 3:47 PM
I don't know. Maliki might still be better off having the US there, but there are significanty blocs who want the US out.
And, I'm quite sure that if the US presence was brought for a vote in parliament, a significant majority (outside the Kurds) would vote for a withdrawal simply because they couldn't be seen to side with the US.
You figure almost all the Sunnis vote for withdrawal, the Sadrists, Fadhila, probably Allawi's bloc trying to look nationalist, and then you'd have all the pressured politicians.
Bush is staying because he made the mess and doesn't have any way out that doesn't make that even clearer than it is.
By
mikevotes, at 4:29 PM
Is there a communion of common ideals shared between Maliki and the Bush admin? Or is this a loveless, symbiotic marriage of perceived necessity?
I don't know much about Maliki, but I think he's more a man of self preservation than of principle. I wonder how much longer it behooves him to be seen as a Bush/Cheney stooge... I wonder if there's a point were the overt thumb of Bush/Cheney becomes unbearable -- or at least untenable -- and Maliki believes he could forge a more stable local power base by telling Bush/Cheney to buzz off.
Maliki is PM, but at what point does he become irrelevant? From the BushCo point of view and from the Shia point of view.
I'm fascinated by how long the government has managed to hold together. Or has it? Is it just an impotent show piece that no one locally sees it as a power base, and therefor no faction has seen fit to overthrow it?
Still, the rising tide seems to be floating an awful lot of official resentment to America's military presence.
By
-epm, at 6:46 PM
I agree about Maliki's concerns being preservation, but I would also add the promotion of Shia interests. His self preservation after the US leaves relies entirely on his Shia brethren.
I would say that so long as the US is fighting almost exclusively the Sunnis, he'll put up with alot assuming the Shia street can be controlled.
I think that's the tipping point more than the US who is wedded to him because any alternative would lead to chaos.
That's obne of the reasons the Sunnis/Al Qaeda are targeting civilians, it's their main way of turning the Shia street against the government.
I would say the government is being held together because of Shia politics and the Kurds believeing their interests will eventually be served. Right now, Iran is the force bringing them all together.
But how long can the street be mollified? I don't know
By
mikevotes, at 9:03 PM
"I believe the signs translate, "Welcome, Liberators," but I can't make them out through the burning effigies."
LMAO...and only because you have to sometimes.
By
Chuck, at 6:47 AM
It's rare I can caption and make myself laugh out loud, but that one did.
It's horrible, but with Cheney in Baghdad again talking happy, it's spot on.
By
mikevotes, at 7:21 AM
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