And so do I.
From the Los Angeles Times:
Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's call to followers to hold a mass prayer and protest in central Baghdad to denounce the new Status of Forces Agreement reached between U.S. and Iraqi negotiators brought tens of thousands of people swarming into central Baghdad's Firdos Square on Friday. This is none other than the place where U.S. forces helped Iraqis joyously pull down a giant statue of Saddam Hussein back in April 2003.
This time, the crowd gathered at the square was just as frenzied, but there were no American forces in sight. And this time, the protesters dragged down something very different: an effigy of President Bush. Their anger is over the SOFA, which would keep U.S. forces in Iraq through December 2011. That's far too long, according to the anti-U.S. cleric Sadr, and according to those in the crowd Friday.
Haven't we heard that the pulling down of the statue of Saddam was something of a staged event, heavily assisted by US troops?
They included young men like 19-year-old Ali Mohammed, who said the pact won't serve Iraqi interests if it is passed by the parliament next week, when a vote is expected. "We want the occupiers to leave. We don't want to form agreements with them," he said as he and a friend entered the rally site. There were plenty of old people in the crowd as well, including a woman who called herself Um Hadhi, who had walked for hours by herself from Sadr City to attend the protest. "We are against the Americans. We want them to get out. Let them just say goodbye and leave us in peace," she said, deep wrinkles creasing her face. Sadr_march9 She refused to give her age. "I'm still young!" she said with a laugh as she headed for home after the rally.
There you have it.
UPDATE: From Jim in the comments:
Who woulda thought that the POTUS would start a GWOT that would beget a SOFA?
SOFA seems to be such an ironic acronym for this thing.
ReplyDeleteYa think?
ReplyDeleteWho woulda thought that the POTUS would start a GWOT that would beget a SOFA?
ReplyDeleteWell, there ya go then.
ReplyDeleteI have no reason for the hope that is in me tonight. But it's there.
:)
Grandmere -- 45 years ago a friend ran in to my dorm room to say: "They shot Jack".
ReplyDeleteLet us also remember him today.
pulled down an effigy of G. Bush --holy crap!!! I would hope so.
ReplyDeleteC'mon. Let's bring 'em home January 22.
Actually, the "crowd" present for the pulling down of the statue was rather small by comparison and somewhat staged so the photographers could get shots that gave the appearance of a massive crowd. I think this is much more telling.
ReplyDeleteRenzmqt is so right - this really was a huge crowd and rally -with clear strong feelings.
ReplyDeleteThe Saddam statue thing was a crazy photo op.
Perhaps because the SOFA reminds the Iraqis too much of The Ottoman?
ReplyDelete;-/
It's a big crowd, alright, but it's important to remember that it's a big partisan crowd. Of course Sadr wants the US out of Iraq.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that we are about to do what Portugal did when it abandoned its colonies in the 1970's. Everyone was so sick of the ongoing war that they simply pulled out, setting the former colonies up for decades of violence and, in the case of Timor, takeover and violent repression by an unfriendly neighbor. It was an answer that provided relief for the occupying country at the expense of the occupied.
I've believe in the "You Break It, You Buy It" approach. I do not think that the obligations we incurred by our ill-thought, ill-planned and ill-executed invasion and occupation of Iraq are met by simply leaving and letting them fight it out among themselves. YMMV.
BillyD, I know that it was a partisan crowd, but if the Iraqis want us gone, we must go. They are a sovereign nation, as Bush said over and over. We will have no legitimate reason to stay. The aftermath of our departure may not be pretty, but we cannot continue to occupy the country. We made the mess in Iraq, and we should help to rebuild the infrastucture and institutions country as best we can, but we must not have a large number of military forces there indefinitely.
ReplyDeleteAs I see it it's a choice between a quick bloodshed and a slow, drawn out one.
ReplyDeleteWhich will be "better"? I down't know.
furniture related humour JCF. Well done.
ReplyDeleteBillyD, I know that it was a partisan crowd, but if the Iraqis want us gone, we must go. They are a sovereign nation, as Bush said over and over.
ReplyDeleteYes, they are a sovereign nation. And their government speaks for them, not the paramilitary followers of one Shiite cleric who wants to run things himself.
BillyD, Muqtada and his followers are not going anywhere. It's their country. The Shiite cleric could, very likely, set Iraq aflame with a few sermons. He must be reckoned with by the Iraqi government, such as it is.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying that all will be rosy, once a large number of our troops are out. It probably will not be, but we can't occupy their country forever.