Sunnis End Boycott Of Parliament
BAGHDAD (AP) - Sunni lawmakers ended their five-week boycott of parliament Thursday, raising hopes the factious assembly can make progress on benchmark legislation demanded by Washington.
The 44 members of the Iraqi Accordance Front attended Thursday’s session after striking a deal with other blocs to reinstate the Sunni speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, who was ousted by the Shiite-dominated assembly last month for erratic behavior.
Al-Mashhadani is expected to gracefully resign after presiding over a number of sessions. Shiite legislator Hassan al-Suneid, an aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said al-Mashhadani’s return came after secret conditions that should not be made public.
The Sunnis ended their walkout two days after Shiite lawmakers loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ended their boycott after officials accepted their demands for rebuilding a Shiite shrine damaged by bombings.
Those two boycotts had paralyzed the 275-member parliament, which is under strong criticism from U.S. critics for failing to approve key legislation and for plans to take a month’s vacation in August at a time when American and Iraqi troops are dying on the battlefield.
To the north, American and Iraqi forces were continuing operations to clear Sunni extremists from the eastern part of Baqouba, 35 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. said.
U.S. troops regained control of the western half of the city last month and launched operations into the rest of Baqouba last Tuesday.
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This is clearly a defeat for the democRats. They just can’t win at anything. Lahoooosaherssss.
July 19th, 2007 at 4:35 amMore good news.
July 19th, 2007 at 4:40 amIt would be hard to judge this new Parliment when the role model they have is in DC. The US Surrendators can whine about the political goals in Iraq not being met, but that would be the pot calling the kettle black.
Maybe we could send our dummacrats over there to stage an all nighter. Hairless Reid could bore them into submission by hosting a jammie party.
On a serious note, I would like to see the Iraqi Parliment come to terms and work towards the common goal of uniting to stop sectarian violence. The sooner they can govern themselves, the sooner we can move on to other projects like Pakistan, Iran, Syria, North Korea, and perhaps even domestic policy.
The Iraqis have alot of rat-killing to do. I can only hope they accomplish something before the September progress report. The lefties can eat a little crow.
July 19th, 2007 at 4:42 amA good sign. Maybe they are finally getting it… Democracy is hard! Being a tyrant is easy…
You also have to remember, these people don’t know Democracy, if given the time they may stumble towards understanding, but that’s still years away.
Anything to along those lines, away from tyranny, that undercuts the insurgencies, is a welcome change.
July 19th, 2007 at 5:51 am