As Congress struggles to cobble together a military appropriations bill that does not simply rubber-stamp (yet again) the unending occupation of Iraq, perhaps the members of the people’s branch of government would do well to respect the wishes of the Iraqi parliament and demand that the President do the same, as reported here by Raed Jarrar and Joshua Holland in AlterNet:
Majority of Iraqi Lawmakers Now Reject Occupation
On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq’s parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement, the nationalist Shia group that sponsored the petition.
It’s a hugely significant development. Lawmakers demanding an end to the occupation now have the upper hand in the Iraqi legislature for the first time; previous attempts at a similar resolution fell just short of the 138 votes needed to pass (there are 275 members of the Iraqi parliament, but many have fled the country’s civil conflict, and at times it’s been difficult to arrive at a quorum).
Reached by phone in Baghdad on Tuesday, Al-Rubaie said that he would present the petition, which is nonbinding, to the speaker of the Iraqi parliament and demand that a binding measure be put to a vote. Under Iraqi law, the speaker must present a resolution that’s called for by a majority of lawmakers, but there are significant loopholes and what will happen next is unclear.
What is clear is that while the U.S. Congress dickers over timelines and benchmarks, Baghdad faces a major political showdown of its own. The major schism in Iraqi politics is not between Sunni and Shia or supporters of the Iraqi government and “anti-government forces,” nor is it a clash of “moderates” against “radicals”; the defining battle for Iraq at the political level today is between nationalists trying to hold the Iraqi state together and separatists backed, so far, by the United States and Britain.
The continuing occupation of Iraq and the allocation of Iraq’s resources — especially its massive oil and natural gas deposits — are the defining issues that now separate an increasingly restless bloc of nationalists in the Iraqi parliament from the administration of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose government is dominated by Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish separatists. [full text]
Kmareka.com 
I suggest that there is nothing new about this and it probably the 5th such poll taken over the last 12 months or so; several of the others were published. However, the complete picture that emerges in polls, polling and the various in-country blogs that exist, as well as the in-country newspapers, is that everyone wants the U.S. out, but NOT JUST YET. Similarly, polls in different regions of Iraq, reflect the in situ situation. Kurds are happy to have the U.S.; the Basraites and Marsh Arabs want the Brits, Aussies, Japanese, etc. All would like all the forces gone, but not until they say they want them gone. Of course we can hope that the Parliment would pass a formal resolution asking for withdrawal at once. If that happened, the Kurds would ask for a permanent presence in the North, and slide a bit more toward their independence. The South would do the same and I suspect form an alliance with Kuwait (remember Kuwait?). There is no real fondness on the part of Arab Iraqis for the non-Arab Iranians. In some sense, Joe Biden had it right.
OK, Mr Wolberg. I didn’t have a chance to respond to your last comment; now I guess I can tackle both at once, since the theme is related.
You doubted the number I cited, that the percent of soldiers with HS diplomas had dropped from 90% to 805. You “didn’t think that was right” or whatever the quote was. Well, it was from an interview with Gen Barry McCaffrey, and I stand by that number. He also stated that standards on the military aptitude test have been lowered.
I apologise if facts are an inconvenience to your beliefs to accept factual evidence?
In the previous comment, you stated that we need to increase our volunteer military. My point is that our volunteer army is broken; Pres Bush has broken it, and it will take a decade to repair the damage.
So, all of your wishful thinking about remaining in Iraq-as you express here–or increasing the volunteer army is just so much fantasy. It can’t happen. The surge is only possible because Pres Bush is extending tours and cutting leaves, all of this against the advice of the miliatry. Such demands cannot continue to be open-ended.
Bottom line, Mr Wolberg, is that your imperialist dreams are a fantasy. It ain’t gonna happen in the real world. So stop talking about what you want to see happen, and face the facts. We don’t have enough soldiers to stay in Iraq much long enough to make a difference. Gen Petraeus has said that there is no military solution to the situation Iraq.
You are faced with a choice: implement a draft or give up the occupation. As it is, we could not meet a real threat if one arose. You have to choose one or the other, and you refuse to do this. That, Mr Wolberg, is the definition of fantaxy.
Then there’s the issue of paying for a continued occupation, or expanding the military via a draft. You see, I object to spending my children’s tax money to continue in this mistake.
What’s worse, Pres Bush has no qualms about demanding more and more and more from our brave troops, but he can’t ask the wealthiest among us to give up the smallest bit of comfort. The pres demands soldiers face death while cutting taxes on the top 1% of the economic pyramid. And yet the troops–4 years later–still don’t have the body armor and aromored vehicles they begged for back in 2003.
That’s the choice: the lives of more soldiers, or a third or fourth house for someone who’s already well off.
And the choice is exactly that stark.
Which side do you favor, Mr Wolberg? I think it’s pretty obvious.
Unfortunately, and I would not ordinarily use this language, but you deserve a response. First, a close look at the only reliable numbers…call your Congess person…shows a 1% increase in non-H.S. recruits for the U.S. Army. There is no increase in non-H.S. recruits in any other branch of service. Actually the level of education in all technical fields of recruitment has increased. The military is a volunteer, not a draft force. The force is the best trained, the best equipped and the most highly educated military in history. There is no need for a draft and none is wanted by the people who are involved. An increase in force structure will occur and is already underway. The era of massed forces, 10 million, 15 million is long gone. The era of highly trained and efficiently equipped forces is under way. We do need more aircraft, more ships and more smart weapons, with a modest increase in trained, technical and dedicated people. It is intersting that Augustus ruled an empre that dominated the known world with a force of professionals that was about as large as our modern army, 500,000 or so. He did this with technology (roads, roads, roads) and the best equipped and trained military of his era.
Secondly, comments about my personalinterest in the welfare of our forces is an idiotic and poorly reasoned line of invective. You have no knowledge about my personal concern for the welfare of our forces, or what my personal experience or personal stake in that matter actually are, and to assume anything less is silly. The LONG RETIRED General you mention is a fine American, and former drug czar, but unfortunately he can be and is wrong. He is not privy to any information any of us cannot also determine. He was wrong. That makes him no less a wise man or dedicated American in my eyes. I do have a personal stake and concern in the situation and the welfare of our forces, and I will leave it at that.
Thirdly, there is evil in this world and one can choose to confront it or be pacific and not confront it. Both tactics have been tried. These are bad people who see death as a road to paradise and glory. I sugegst we send them along that road as quickly and efficiently as possible. These are folks who think it is good to kill and behead and their God and Prophet requires them to do so. These are folks who have a disdain for democracy, rights of woemn, other faiths or non-faiths, and who burn books. Seems to me that kind of restricts the room for discussion. What willl you negotiate: books, rights of women, freedom, your religion?
The U.S. is not an occupier. I, as well as all the parents I know, with a personal stake in the situation, want our kids home safe and secure. But we also know that there are criminal loonies who value death more than they value life wearing various guises that want to do this nation harm and there are loonies who value death more than they value life, who do believe that the Wset (however you define that hostorical value set) must be destroyed.
During World War II, a no less destructive loonie evil cause the deaths of more than 29,000 people every single day of that war…29,000! The memphis Belle, one single plane and its crew, were praised and lauded because it survive just 25 missions. Death faced every single Allied combatant every hour, every day, but we did not shirk our need to confront evil. I suggest a far greater “evil” (and a socio-political-religous band of criminal islamofacists loonies with a death wish for us and ouir children can be just as evil as the Japanese-German-Italian fascists)does intend to do us and all others not of their “mind-set” great harm. To ignore this is to be either simple-headed or just plain dumb with nary a glimmer of appreciation of history.
The U.S. is not an occupier. That fact is just basic. My own view is that Iraq was a bad idea based on bad data the same data that Clinton had, the Brits had, the french had and the Gemans and Russians had. Everyone was wrong. My own view ist that Iraq will not survive as a nation state. The Kurds are doing very well as are the South and as are the Marsh Arabs. As I noted, on thios count, I do stand in agreement with Joe Biden and I suspect, the present surge will not work.
Sometimes, it is good to know a bit of history and sometimes it is good to be rational and have some convictions. There are things of value that are not negotiable.