Iraqi Parliament Adjourns For August
…as Maliki may sowing the seeds for his own demise:
Iraq’s parliament on Monday shrugged off U.S. criticism and adjourned for a month, as key lawmakers declared there was no point waiting any longer for the prime minister to deliver Washington-demanded benchmark legislation for their vote.
Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani closed the final three-hour session without a quorum present and declared lawmakers would not reconvene until Sept. 4. That date is just 11 days before the top U.S. military and political officials in Iraq must report to Congress on American progress in taming violence and organizing conditions for sectarian reconciliation.
The recess, coupled with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s failure to get the key draft laws before legislators, may nourish growing opposition to the war among U.S. lawmakers, who could refuse to fund it.
Critics have questioned how Iraqi legislators could take a summer break while U.S. forces are fighting and dying to create conditions under which important laws could be passed in the service of ending sectarian political divisions and bloodshed.
But in leaving parliament, many lawmakers blamed al-Maliki.
“Even if we sit next month, there’s no guarantee that important business will be done,” said Mahmoud Othman, a prominent Kurdish legislator. The parliament had already extended its session by a month, having initially planned a recess for July and August.
“There are Iraqi-Iraqi and Iraqi-American differences that have not been resolved,” Othman said of the benchmark legislation. “The government throws the ball in our court, but we say that it is in the government’s court and that of the politicians. They sent us nothing (to debate or vote).”
The September reports by Ambassador Ryan Crocker and U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus were to assess progress by the Iraqi government and its security forces on 18 political and security benchmarks.
Those include a so-called oil law that would set out rules for foreign investment and the fair distribution of revenue to all of Iraq’s sects and ethnic groups.
“We gave the government a good chance by continuing to sit in July. We can still return for an emergency session if that’s required, but I don’t think that this is necessary because the draft legislation is not complete,” said Salem Abdullah, spokesman for the Iraqi Accordance Front, the key Sunni bloc in parliament.
In Washington, the State Department was unusually silent on the matter, declining to criticize the lawmakers for the break.
“There’s a lot of work to be done in Iraq,” deputy spokesman Tom Casey said. “I’ll leave it to the parliamentary leaders themselves to explain why this might be a good time to take a break.”
He said the United States would continue to push for work on critical legislation, including pieces like the oil law, during the vacation.
“Whether the parliament is in session or not, I think we expect that all of Iraq’s political leadership is going to be continuing to work on those kinds of issues and work out the kinds of compromises so that when the parliament does come back into session, there’ll be something there for them to vote on and them to act on,” Casey said.
“This is not just about having the votes,” he said. “It’s about doing the work in advance so that there’s actually legislation there that folks can agree on.”
Meanwhile, al-Maliki faces a revolt within his party by factions that want him out as Iraqi leader, according to officials in his office and the political party he leads.
Ibrahim al-Jaafari, al-Maliki’s predecessor, leads the challenge and already has approached leaders of the country’s two main Kurdish parties, parliament’s two Sunni Arab blocs and lawmakers loyal to powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Al-Jaafari’s campaign, the officials said, was based on his concerns that al-Maliki’s policies had led Iraq into turmoil because the prime minister was doing too little to promote national reconciliation.
The former prime minister also has approached Grand Ayatollah Ali al- Sistani, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, proposing a “national salvation” government to replace the al-Maliki coalition. The Iranian-born al- Sistani refused to endorse the proposal, the officials said.
“Al-Jaafari is proposing a national and nonsectarian political plan to save the nation,” Faleh al-Fayadh, a Dawa party lawmaker familiar with the former prime minister’s contacts.
Other officials, however, said al-Jaafari had only an outside chance of replacing or ousting al-Maliki. But they said the challenge could undermine al-Maliki and further entangle efforts at meeting important legislative benchmarks sought by Washington.
All the officials spoke of the sensitive political wrangling only on condition of anonymity.
(AP)
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This kind of pisses me off something terrible. Our guys are dying to save their asses and they take a month vacation from accomplishing as much as our Democrats get done. Great timing too I might add…
July 30th, 2007 at 1:06 pmWho do they think they are? democRATS? Someone needs to bitch-slap Maliki into line. Send Ollie North over there for the job. Or maybe they should see if Joe Plame..er..Wilson is man enough.
July 30th, 2007 at 2:07 pmdont these MFers know that we may not be there when they get back from vacation? and its partially because of them not getting things done..Iraqi military and without a doubt our military are getting the job done, but they dont get a vacation from this shit! This really pisses me off..Billions and Billions of dollars and thousands of American and Iraqi lives have been cost and lost and they get a fucking vacation? seriously messed up
July 30th, 2007 at 3:26 pmThis is soooo very fucking French of them …
July 30th, 2007 at 3:43 pmi think it is good that they take the time off and go back to their respective areas.. i want everyone to just think for a minute,,, do u really think it is a VACATION.. where on earth do u go on vacation in iraq,,, it is not like ted kennedy going to the villa at hyannis port to go sailing,,,or nancy belagosi going to san francisco to a giants baseball game,, these are guys that just a few short years ago were killing each other, and now they are talking(yelling).. we need to let them take their time,, we took 13yrs to make our gov’t. and our congress is going on vacation without funding our troops in fire fights.. where is my son going to go buy his bullets when the money runs out????
July 30th, 2007 at 3:54 pmIraqis take their vacations in Kurdistan, where it is relatively safe.
Seriously, with them gone, we can get down to the business at the local level. It is Baghdad that is the political problem not the local authorities…
It is at the local level anyways, that the surge has been most effective.
So have a nice vacation in Kurdistan Iraqi reps. The country doesn’t need your asses anyways. Maybe Iraqis ought to fire their reps and give the job to their soccer team?
July 30th, 2007 at 5:14 pmdad 3/7, you have a good point.
Of all the democracies around the world, no two are the same. Nor did any 2 achieve democracy the same way. Each democracy has it’s own unique history, government, and constitution. They must create it themselves, in their own time, on their own terms, for it to be successful. Returning to their own areas to connect with their constituents at the local level, where the REAL success stories are coming from, seems (to me) to be a good idea.
Personally, I would love to see the Iraqi pols pull together and get things done faster, as my brave nephew is returning there for his 2nd tour soon. I think an Iraqi democracy, worked out with some patience and an eye toward sustainability, would honor our troop’s sacrifices more than merely meeting benchmarks or deadlines.
July 31st, 2007 at 7:37 ambenchmark, is a dummycrat term,,, kinda like “affordable housing” “rules of engagement” “minimum wage” “moral war” they sound good but are not realistic.. democracy and peace are not built fm blueprints with a cost factor or timetable,,my son and daughter are the ones doing the fighting not nancy bellalogosi, harry greed, jack demorlaizing murtha,,, let the soldiers and MARINES do the building,, and give WAR A CHANCE,,, they are the ones that really don’t want war and know the price of PEACE,, a proud dad,,,
July 31st, 2007 at 10:18 am