There's a growing clamour for the US and Britain to simply get the hell out of Iraq.
Even some of the Republicans vying for their party's presidential nomination want to wrap things up, hand everything over to the Iraqis, and leave. The Iraqi government seems to feel the same way.
Yesterday, Iraq's parliament passed a binding resolution that ensures lawmakers have the ability to block the extension of the UN mandate when it comes up for renewal in December. Until now the power to extend the mandate resided with the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.
Several Iraqi parliamentarians say they fully expect the mandate renewal to be rejected in December. Without that mandate the US and coalition forces would revert to being an army of occupation which would virtually end their political legitimacy.
The current mandate was renewed by Maliki last year without consulting parliament and it is quite possible that he may try to veto any vote to end the mandate in December. This could trigger a showdown between the already-wobbly Maliki and an increasingly powerful parliament.
Meanwhile, Britain's former ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, added his voice to those calling for prompt withdrawal of US and UK forces.
Meyer told the Guardian he acknowledged that leaving Iraq would be "painful", but said the mission was not worth the death of one more serviceman. "I personally believe that the presence of American and British and coalition forces is making things worse, not only inside Iraq but the wider region around Iraq. The arguments against staying for any greater length of time themselves strengthen with every day that passes," Sir Christopher said.
He added: "I think the Iraqis are in fact sorting themselves out - often bloodily - independent of what we're doing."
2 comments:
Hmmmm!! And after they leave close the boarders. No one in, no one out. Then they would be forced to settle their own mess.
That sounds pretty extreme. Unfortunately the occupation wasted four years without really trying to get control of the country and now it's probably just too late to hope for anything better than eventual peace through civil war and sectarian violence. The worst part of that is the leadership that emerges from it.
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