So much for winning their hearts & minds...

[RebootedCorpse]

Iraqi speaker decries US 'butchery'


Saturday 22 July 2006, 18:08 Makka Time, 15:08 GMT


US troops were roundly condemned in the speech


US forces have committed butchery in Iraq and should leave, the speaker of the country's parliament has said.

Mahmoud al-Mashhadani was speaking on Saturday at a UN-sponsored conference on transitional justice and reconciliation in Baghdad.

"Just get your hands off Iraq and the Iraqi people and Muslim countries, and everything will be all right," he said in a speech as the conference opened.

"What has been done in Iraq is a kind of butchery of the Iraqi people."

He also criticised US support for Israeli attacks against Lebanon.

The two-day conference, which was originally supposed to be opened by Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, will address the issue of dealing with the crimes of previous regimes and a plan to reconcile warring factions.

The prime minister is expected to name a reconciliation committee on Saturday.

Al-Mashhadani told the audience of UN officials, foreign experts, Iraqi politicians and civil society representatives that the Iraqi people had little use for foreign advice on running the country or for foreign-sponsored conferences.

Anecdote

"If a reconciliation project is going to work it has to talk to all the people," he said. "It must go through our Iraqi beliefs and perceptions. What we need is reconciliation between Iraqis only, there can be no third party."

He related an anecdote about how American soldiers keep people waiting in lines at checkpoints for hours because they insist on resting their bomb-sniffing dogs.

"The sleep of American dogs is more important than people being stopped in the street for hours," he said.

The UN representative who then opened the conference referred to al-Mashhadani's speech as "spirited".

More US troops

Meanwhile on Saturday, the US moved to bolster American troop strength in Baghdad to cope with the escalating violence as seven Shia workers were shot dead in west Baghdad and explosions in the heart of the capital shattered a one-day calm after a ban on private vehicles expired.

The seven Shia died in a drive-by shooting at noon in the Furat neighbourhood near Baghdad airport, police Lieutenant Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said. Two other workers were wounded.

Earlier, two large explosions occurred in eastern Baghdad about 20 minutes apart at midmorning. One targeted an Iraqi police patrol, but killed a civilian. The other occurred near the Rasheed military camp, killing an American soldier.

A ban on private vehicles had kept down violence on Friday after one of the most violent weeks in the capital this year.

It expired on Friday evening, and within hours, heavy bursts of automatic weapons rang out.

A senior US defence official said the Pentagon was moving ahead with scheduled deployments to Iraq next month and was moving one battalion to Baghdad from Kuwait, where it was in reserve.

[Gregory]

With all the talk about Marvel's Civil War, we're overlooking the very real one happening over there.

[Brad N.]

Yeah, in other news, CNN, MSNBC, and FOX have to remind us 24 hours a day that we are into day 13 of the War in the Middle East!!! CNN has sent more than a dozen of their top reporters into the field in Israel, Cyprus, Lebanon, and Jordan. when was the last time they even mentioned that OUR men and women are in Iraq?!? Not to mention why there aren't more journalists in Baghdad. Oh that's right, our men and women in Iraq don't matter anymore since we're almost on the verge of World War 3!!! Fuckers.

[ty gorton]

"It must go through our Iraqi beliefs and perceptions. What we need is reconciliation between Iraqis only, there can be no third party."

We have made such an impossible mess. There is no way to win in this situation, which was a given from the start.

[RickLM]

Agreed. I can't think of any conceivable way out. Staying 10 years to create stability would be a horrible move, generating mucho hatred, while an abrupt withdrawal would lead to chaos. But I think at some point we'll just pull out quickly and wipe the blood off our hands and tell everyone its up to them. Awful mess.

[NickBurgess]

I can't BELIEVE people who didn't see this coming back in 2002 and 2003. We tried to tell you!

It's a shame.

[WinterRose]

Nevermind they're resting the stressed dogs to sniff for bombs in an attempt to keep those people from being blown the hell up. Is the comparison to the welfare of the dogs over the people waiting in line a strawman argument?

And hell, I've pretty much been saying since 2001, We pull ALL support. From ALL of the middle east countries. Every last freaking bit.

"You don't want us there? Well good. It's a hellhole and we don't want to BE there. We need to get big oil our of OUR legislative bodies, and a clean break from you lot may be just what we need to clean house. We'll just go ahead and spend this money on say... an alternative to petrochemical energy and let you guys exterminate one another in the sand. Let us know who wins, okay?

By the way, here's the new rule. We're severing ALL ties. Israel too. We're walking away from the whole damn mess. We can't convince you to get along. We can't force you to get along. You guys work on that yourselves. We agree that we've done enough. Find a solution for yourselves. If you need to speak to a superpower, we're sure you remember how forgiving the Soviets were a few decades back.

So given that we're finally leaving you alone, allah help you if you hurt a single American anywhere. Kill one of our people, we drop a missile on you. Attack us through some terrorist group, we'll pop a MOAB over one of your major cities. There will be no apology. No reparation. Explain it to your people. Have em police each other. We can bomb you back to trading pretty rocks for charred dogmeat on a plain of black smoky glass, and we're really sick of your shit. Again, let us know who wins after, kay?"

-Secret President Edward Gore, "The 2006 'Let us know who wins.' speech."

[Gene Reginato]

Well, that's pretty much what they want.

[BronxRonin]

Yeah, in other news, CNN, MSNBC, and FOX have to remind us 24 hours a day that we are into day 13 of the War in the Middle East!!! CNN has sent more than a dozen of their top reporters into the field in Israel, Cyprus, Lebanon, and Jordan. when was the last time they even mentioned that OUR men and women are in Iraq?!? Not to mention why there aren't more journalists in Baghdad. Oh that's right, our men and women in Iraq don't matter anymore since we're almost on the verge of World War 3!!! Fuckers.

I concur!