Well, so much for greeting us as liberators or with flowers. According to today's WaPo, the Iraqi Prime Minister is putting together a plan that is hoped to stem the civil war in Iraq. While this is a noble effort, the plan includes an "amnesty program" for those who had attacked US troops, as opposed to Iraqi civilians.
So now, this is the fruits of our "labor" in Iraq. Not only do our troops have to deal with IEDs, putting their lives in danger every day for lies and greed by Dear Leader and his neocon war criminals, but now it seems as though the killing of US troops is tacitly condoned by the same government that Bush and Rice was so quick to tout as "another example of the great progress in Iraq".
Did you catch that, Congressional Democrats? There will likely now be amnesty in Iraq for those who are targeting and killing our troops. This is what happens when there is no course to stay, yet the call is to stay that undefined course.
According to the article:
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Wednesday proposed a limited amnesty to help end the Sunni Arab insurgency as part of a national reconciliation plan that Maliki said would be released within days. The plan is likely to include pardons for those who had attacked only U.S. troops, a top adviser said.
While this is being framed as helping the overall political process, it has been made clear that those who are involved in the "resistance" as opposed to those who were "shedding Iraqi blood" would be able to receive amnesty. So much for Bush's secret middle-of-the-night trip to Iraq and all of the great warm fuzzy feelings that the nitwit-in-Chief felt. Yesterday saw over 2,000 people take to the streets of Iraq specifically to protest Bush's visit and now we have the Prime Minister offering amnesty for those who "only" killed US troops.
Please tell me how the same old "supporting of the troops" will help here? And please PLEASE tell me how this won't lead to more attacks on US troops? Oh, and while we are at it, please tell me how the same old tired bullshit do-nothing-but-hope-for-the-best policies are going to help troop morale?
Seems to me like those who continue to bark about the "lack of patriotism" and "support for the terrorists" have some `splaining to do in order to justify how this is even remotely acceptable in terms of not DRASTICALLY addressing a change in Iraq policy. Today, the House is supposed to be debating the Iraq war and we already know how the Republicans are going to frame this, thanks to the release of a confidential memo from Boehner to House Republicans. But, don't you think that someone should be discussing the ramifications of the following statement:
The government has in mind somehow to do reconciliation, and one way to do it is to offer an amnesty, but not a sort of unconditional amnesty," Kadhimi said in a telephone interview. "We can see if somehow those who are so-called resistance can be accepted if they have not been involved in any kind of criminal behavior, such as killing innocent people or damaging infrastructure, and even infrastructure if it is minor will be pardoned."
The reconciliation effort pioneered by South Africa after the collapse of apartheid might be a model, Kadhimi said. "One way was to admit what you have done and you will be forgiven, and maybe parts of this can be considered. Because once we see people coming forward to admit what they have done, and it's within the areas the government has the right to pardon, it could happen."
Asked about clemency for those who attacked U.S. troops, he said: "That's an area where we can see a green line. There's some sort of preliminary understanding between us and the MNF-I," the U.S.-led Multi-National Force-Iraq, "that there is a patriotic feeling among the Iraqi youth and the belief that those attacks are legitimate acts of resistance and defending their homeland. These people will be pardoned definitely, I believe."
Yes, folks, this is what the quick and decisive victory in Iraq has turned into. A failing government whose only hope for stability is to offer amnesty to those who are only killing US troops. The same US troops that were sent over there to fight for a lie. The same troops who are coming back with PTSD or maimed, or even worse and having their benefits cut, wait time for treatment stretched out longer and generally treated like third class citizens.
And yet, those who are so quick to point the finger and divide the country by calling out those who just want our troops to return home safely, or receive the proper amount of armor and supplies, or receive the medical care and treatment they deserve or the dismissal of those who are responsible for this ugly mess that the world has been put in will likely brush this aside as well.
Or even worse, use it against the troops or as another reason why we need to "bomb them all into oblivion".
Great job, Bush, Cheney, Rummy and your neocon thug war criminals. Now you have the government which you yourselves touted and installed with questionable elections giving the OK to those who are attacking the brave soldiers that you sent over to fight, kill and die for your lies and greed.
Operation Iraqi FUBAR is indeed, accomplished.
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