You Will Anyway: Making Space for the Political Process to Work

Friday, August 24, 2007

Making Space for the Political Process to Work

I'm sorry to inform you that the political situation in Iraq is getting even worse, despite the surge that was supposed to give it room to blossom.

Escalating a political crisis that has paralyzed the Iraqi government, three secular cabinet members will formally resign Saturday.
WaPo

I could be wrong, but I suspect George's remark about it being up to the Iraqi people to decide who their leader is was a nod to having Maliki removed, without having to call for it - after all, he personally ushered in Iraqi democracy, did he not? He can't very well now just come out and say about al-Maliki what he said about Saddam.

Senators Levin and Warner are calling for Maliki's removal. And it looks like our old pal Iyad Allawi is hankering for another go at running things himself. Allawi, the guy who pulled out a gun and shot suspected insurgents in cold blood. Allawi, the guy who broke his wrist pounding on a table in a rage. Allawi, the "former" CIA man. Allawi, the guy who was appointed interim Prime Minister by the American government in advance of elections in Iraq and who lost big when the votes were counted.

I have a better idea. We could trot out Chalabi. He's bound to still be around under some rock somewhere.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

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Daily Twain:

And other words of wisdom...

It is well to remember that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others. -- John Andrew Holmes

There is no inverse relationship between freedom and security. Less of one does not lead to more of the other. People with no rights are not safe from terrorist attack. -- Molly Ivins

[War] is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious [racket]. ... It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives ... It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. -- Major General Smedley Butler

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe. -- Albert Einstein

"The brain of our species is, as we know, made up largely of potassium, phosphorus, propaganda, and politics, with the result that how not to understand what should be clearer is becoming easier and easier for all of us." -- James Thurber

One of the fun aspects of Empire is how many ironies it creates. -- Glenn Greenwald

I had a slightly insane discussion the other day with a winger who wanted urgently for me to understand that the Haditha massacre is the kind of thing that happens in war. Whereas I was trying to point out to him that the Haditha massacre is the kind of thing that happens in war. -- Molly Ivins

Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception. --George Orwell

I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past's fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare. –- Howard Zinn

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it. --Upton Sinclair

If we're the greatest country in the world, then maybe we could have the greatest government. -- Lewis Black

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. -- Aristotle

The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who loves his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair. -- H.L. Mencken

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -- James Madison, 4th President of the United States

No nation builds a wall out of strength. They build it out of fear. -- Michael Flynn

They call it The American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it. -- George Carlin

Texas justice is Texas justice. -- Victoria Nuland, US State Department spokeswoman

When you hold up your arm and swear to uphold the Constitution, you don’t say, “Except in wartime.” -- George McGovern

Sometimes I go about with pity for myself, and all the while Great Winds are carrying me across the sky. ~Ojibway saying