Comments on Informed Comment: Thousands Demonstrate Against US Security Pact; M...

"there were few Islamofascists in Iraq prior to th...

2008-11-23T13:11:00.000-05:00

"there were few Islamofascists in Iraq prior to the Bush aggression."

Why the use of this blatantly ignorant, oxymoronic hate term invented by the bigoted neocon propaganda machine? The use of this term adds nothing to the discourse except to confirm the user's complete ignorance of both Islam and fascism.

"Are they protesting because the timetable is too ...

2008-11-23T11:57:00.000-05:00

"Are they protesting because the timetable is too protracted? Certainly not because they want U.S. troops to stay?"

Might they be protesting because they do not believe their "government" should sign an agreement of any kind with the country that illegally invaded their country in an act of pure, unprovoked imperial aggression?

Would the United States sign such an agreement were the roles reversed and it was the United States that had been subjected to massively violent invasion and deadly, destructive, and oppressive occupation?

jf lee:Get ideologically literate. Islamofascism ...

2008-11-23T06:20:00.000-05:00

jf lee:

Get ideologically literate. Islamofascism was coined by Algerian progressives who opposed the imams kiss-up to French colonists. Cut the christianity-is-regressive/islam-is-progressive crap. The solution to MidEast problems has always been: Secularism. That is where Bush failed and that is why your mentality is a waste of brain cells. Drop your pathological tunnel vision and get with the program.

Add it up: there were few Islamofascists in Iraq p...

2008-11-22T19:32:00.000-05:00

Add it up: there were few Islamofascists in Iraq prior to the Bush aggression. Now they control both the government and the opposition.

Your rhetoric doesn't add up. The term Islamofascist can only be seen for what it is above, a blanket term of condemnation for... well its range seems very broad indeed, from Arabs to Persians to Indonesians.

A "masterful" Neocon hate term, employed above anonymously, as usual, with just what end in mind?

Apparently just to keep it current, and hateful.

Meanwhile, right wing bloggers are proclaiming tod...

2008-11-22T18:11:00.000-05:00

Meanwhile, right wing bloggers are proclaiming today: "Victory in Iraq Day."

What a joke. At best, Sunnis are in a transient passive phase after losing Baghdad. No salients; no war. And US troops are in barracks, working on their Playstations. No combat; no combat deaths.

Shiite belligerence is being sublimated into political work on SOFA.

Iraq "peace" is a stack of cards that could be blown over at an instant.

What kind of "victory" cries settlement of issues, when 4,000,000 people are in either internal or external exile?

Add it up: there were few Islamofascists in Iraq prior to the Bush aggression. Now they control both the government and the opposition. Secularism was murdered with the abolishment of Baathism in the Coalition Provisional Authority's "Directive Number 1."

I proclaim today: "America's Shame in Iraq Day."

Juan,According to Raed Jarrar, who has extensive c...

2008-11-22T14:56:00.000-05:00

Juan,

According to Raed Jarrar, who has extensive contacts within the Iraqi parliament, a 2/3 majority is required to pass the SOFA. Moreover, should the Maliki government and its parliamentarian allies attempt to pass the SOFA with a simple majority, then major Sunni and Shia parties will view the vote and law as illegitimate. I don't think I need to explain what that would portend.

Does that mean they aren't planning to name a stre...

2008-11-22T12:51:00.000-05:00

Does that mean they aren't planning to name a street after him after all?

Wasn't it a whole large square, according to Richard Perle?

If I were a betting man, I'd say that the security...

2008-11-22T11:50:00.000-05:00

If I were a betting man, I'd say that the security agreement is likely to pass through parliament, even if narrowly-- though if the Sunni Arabs do unanimously vote against or absent themselves, the agreement will lack the legitimacy that would have come from a national consensus across ethno-religious groups.

Do you think the compradors flown in from London and Jordan to buy this threadbare sofa can possibly be considered to in any way represent the Iraqi people?

Are you implying that the present Iraqi government is anything other than the creature of the Neocon regime in Washington DC?

What kind of government votes to allow the occupation of the nation by a foreign power? A puppet regime of the foreign occupying power is the only possible answer.

I wouldn't be surprised if buried somewhere deep i...

2008-11-22T08:41:00.000-05:00

I wouldn't be surprised if buried somewhere deep in the minutiae of the agreement is a provision that requires a Baghdad street to be named after Bush. You know... so they have to do it.

Are they protesting because the timetable is too p...

2008-11-22T07:19:00.000-05:00

Are they protesting because the timetable is too protracted? Certainly not because they want U.S. troops to stay?

Meanwhile, following Ayman al-Zawahiri's attacks a...

2008-11-22T04:04:00.000-05:00

Meanwhile, following Ayman al-Zawahiri's attacks against Omaba, US Muslims leaders delivered the best answer : "We find it insulting when anyone speaks for our community instead of giving us the dignity and the honor of speaking for ourselves."

From the right place (Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial, Educational and Cultural Center), the right message at the right moment, by the right people.

Change has come : al Qaeda just lost their best ally, Fundamentalist in Chief Bush.

A large, peaceful opposition and Shaia to boot. So...

2008-11-22T03:45:00.000-05:00

A large, peaceful opposition and Shaia to boot. Sounds like a vibrant democracy is blossoming in Iraq.

Pilgrimage to Mecca is not open to all, but a lott...

2008-11-22T03:18:00.000-05:00

Pilgrimage to Mecca is not open to all, but a lottery due to the Saudi quota. Demand is normally 6 to 10 times the limit. Corruption is rife even here, which explains why the UIA members are more likely to go to Mecca.

The Iraqi lawmakers will enjoy a twe-week break starting Tuesday, regardless of the pilgrims.

The 58 Kurdish members can be relied on to support the agreement but not the 83 Shiites. A number of MPs have submitted a complaint to the institutional court to alter the majority threshold to two thirds, instead of a simple majority.

"BAGHDAD — Tens of thousands of followers of radic...

2008-11-22T03:02:00.000-05:00

"BAGHDAD — Tens of thousands of followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr packed a central Baghdad square Friday, where they protested a U.S.-Iraq security agreement..."

"Tens of thousands" is really a pretty vague quantity. I saw student protests of "tens of thousands" on a single campus in the early 70's. For a city the size of Baghdad, it may not be that impressive.

.10,000 demonstrators doesn't sound like much to m...

2008-11-22T02:47:00.000-05:00

.
10,000 demonstrators doesn't sound like much to me. Can someone put this in the Iraqi context ?
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