Sen. Levin is barking up the wrong tree calling for Maliki's replacement

[bigtree]

Levin's calling for the Iraqi parliament to replace Maliki. What our party should be pressing for instead is to remove the weight of our interference in Iraq's politics off of Iraqis right along with removing the weight of our military from their country. Reshuffling the deck of the ruling authority we helped install won't justify our troops staying another minute.

The extent that we meddle in their government at all smacks of all of the blather Bush regularly accuses other nations of in Iraq. No other country's influence in Iraq could begin to outmatch the destruction caused by the U.S. meddling there.

Levin should back the fuck off.


Here's the report:

Levin Calls for Iraqi Lawmakers to Oust Prime Minister Maliki

Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his government should be voted out of office by the country's parliament because he is incapable of bringing about political unity, U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said.

Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said he made that assessment after a two-day trip to Iraq last week.

``I have reached the conclusion that this government is not going to be able to make the compromises so essential to ending the violence,'' Levin told reporters today in a conference call.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=anD1gFQJRrkI&refer=worldwide

[Rydz777]

1. I agree completely. OUT NOW. Whether Maliki stays or goes

is none of our business. Bush's big boast was that he had brought a democratic government to Iraq. It is an empty boast, but it becomes even more empty when our politicians try to dictate the composition of the Iraqi government. We seem to be drawn like a magnet to meddling in this mess.

[KoKo]

2. He wants to be tough on the Iraqi's. They aren't living up to their benchmarks...

so their Government needs to be changed by us.

:sarcasm:

[Kagemusha]

3. In all fairness, Levin's calling for the govt to be changed by them. Not us.

People can argue that Levin means by us, but that's not what he said, at least.

But who's gonna take Maliki's place? Jaafari again? How's that gonna be an improvement?

[bigtree]

5. no change can justify having our troops defending the Iraqi turf for them

what Levin's falling into is equating ANYTHING the Iraqi government does with the question of whether our troops should be there

[Kagemusha]

6. I completely agree with you.

I didn't think it's wise to misinterpret what Levin said as urging forced change of a sovereign government but, you are entirely right to question why Iraq reshuffling the deck chairs of the Titanic should impress us, or why lack of said reshuffling should dismay us. It's kind of irrelevant and besides the point.

[bigtree]

8. No 'force' at all in a prominent U.S. Senator overseeing billions in $ flowing to Iraq

publicly suggesting the ouster of the ruling authority of the country our military is actively occupying.

[Kagemusha]

9. No, none. Bush has proved that he calls the real shots for America re: Iraq.

And unless I'm somehow mistaken, there's pretty much no money flowing into Iraq that is not going into the US military directly, into US contractors, into the programs to train police and military and equip them, and so on and so forth. Actual reconstruction money was largely raided for these purposes to begin with and is now pretty much gone. There's a couple of billion left that the US isn't even bothering to spend; Barbara Boxer wants to raid that to spend it on US bridges and stuff, I think.

Levin has no clout at all to be making threats, so words he spoke that are not an explicit threat can't be logically read as an implicit threat. Levin can't yank security for Iraqi politicians in the Green Zone at the snap of his fingers. Bush can. Bush is Commander in Chief. Big difference.

[bigtree]

4. and that one is to be gifted with another 6 months

another 1000 American lives in their defense

[KaptBunnyPants]

7. But, there will never be peace in Iraq until they pass the Hydrocarbon law.

Everyone knows that what Iraqis need are some leaders who will sit down and hash things out without concern for the opinion of the Iraqi people. That's what democracy is all about.