The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Tag: cease

Iraq Cleric To Followers: Stop Attacking US Troops

BAGHDAD (AP) — An anti-American cleric is urging his followers to stop attacking U.S. troops in Iraq so that their withdrawal from the country isn’t slowed down, a call meant to ramp up pressure on Baghdad’s political leaders who are considering asking some American forces to stay.

In a statement posted on his website, Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told his militias to halt attacks against U.S. forces till the withdrawal is finished at the end of the year as required under a security agreement between Washington and Baghdad.

“Out of my desire to complete Iraq’s independence and to finish the withdrawal of the occupation forces from our holy lands, I am obliged to halt military operations of the honest Iraqi resistance until the withdrawal of the occupation forces is complete,” al-Sadr said in the statement, posted late Saturday. Sadrist lawmaker Mushraq Naji confirmed the statement on Sunday.

However, al-Sadr warned that “if the withdrawal doesn’t happen … the military operations will be resumed in a new and tougher way.”

The statement followed last week’s notice by U.S. officials in Baghdad, announcing the start of the withdrawal.

There are currently about 45,000 U.S. forces in Iraq.

However, U.S. and Iraqi leaders are currently weighing whether some American troops should remain past the Dec. 31 deadline as Baghdad continues to struggle with instability and burgeoning influence from neighboring Iran. Last month, Iraqi leaders began negotiating with U.S. officials in Baghdad to keep at least several thousand troops in Iraq to continue training the nation’s shaky security forces.

Officials in Washington say President Barack Obama is willing to keep between 3,000 and 10,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. But with fewer than four months before the final deadline, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and parliament still have not indicated how many U.S. troops Iraq might need, how long they would stay, or exactly what they would be doing.

After more than eight years of war, many weary Iraqis are ready to see U.S. troops go, and staunchly defend their national sovereignty against an American force they see as occupiers. Al-Sadr’s followers vehemently oppose a continued U.S. military presence in Iraq, and walked out of last month’s meeting where political leaders decided to open the talks on having American troops stay.

“Our goal has been always to fight the occupiers because they are still in our country,” Naji said Sunday.

Still, other Iraqi officials privately say they want American troops to continue training the nation’s security forces for months, if not years, to come. The president of Iraq’s northern Kurdish region this week pleaded for U.S. forces to stay to ward off threats of renewed sectarian violence.

Many Iraqis — both Sunnis and Shiites — share that fear.

“As for me, and the sheiks of Nasiriyah, we want the U.S. Army to stay,” Sheik Manshad al-Ghezi of the southern Shiite city of Nasiriyah said in a recent interview. “We are afraid of civil war. All the parties and groups in Iraq are armed and the Iraqi Army cannot manage to bring security to Iraq and stop the fighting among these parties.”

In another statement posted Sunday, a Shiite militia controlled by Iran jeered calls for U.S. troops to stay. The group ridiculed a warning last week by Kurdish regional President Massoud Barzani that raised the specter of civil war if American forces leave Iraq. Kurds have long depended on U.S. troops to protect them, going back to Saddam Hussein’s rule.

“When the (U.S.) occupation gets out of the country with his agents, the Iraqi nation will be unified,” an unidentified leader for Kataib Hezbollah, which operates in Iraq, wrote on the militia’s website. “Whoever calls for keeping the occupation is linking his destiny with the occupation and has sold himself as cheap, and he should leave the country with his masters.”

Violence has dropped dramatically across Iraq from just a few years ago, but deadly bombings and shootings still happen every day.

Late Sunday, police said a roadside bomb targeting a security patrol killed a passer-by and two police in Baghdad’s eastern Shiite Shamaayah area. Three more police were among eight others who were wounded, officials said.

The casualties were confirmed by a medic at Imam Ali hospital. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Jobless Demand End To Pay-Per-View Town Hall Meetings

Several Republican members of Congress, fed-up with being grilled on their plans to privatize Medicare and other controversial Tea Party measures, are exclusively holding pay-per-view town halls, where attendance will cost you. The response from their constituents has only been to increase the volume.

Paul Ryan, architect of the Republican plan to to shift Medicare to a voucher system that has hurt the GOP in some special election races since it passed the House this spring, is among those sick of regular old free democracy:

Ryan will appear at a late August event where voters can pay $15 to have lunch with the congressman. Those who register in advance, providing their names and background information and writing their checks, might even get to ask their congressman a question.

That’s fine for the pay-to-play crowd.

But the folks on fixed incomes who are most threatened by Ryan’s proposed assaults on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security will have to decide whether they can afford to be citizens. Some of them decided Thursday that Ryan’s price was too high. A group of unemployed workers staged a sit-in at his Kenosha office, while others protested outside, chanting “Ryan is a no-show, bring jobs to Kenosha.” The message from one of the largest cities in the district was blunt: “After being denied a meeting with Ryan after multiple requests over the last few weeks, the unemployed men and women have decided to sit down and wait for Congressman Ryan.”

Emulating Ryan’s avoidance of critics are Reps. Ben Quayle (R-AZ), Chip Cravaack (R-MN), Lou Barletta (R-PA) and Renee Elmers (R-NC). All seem intent on making it as difficult as possible to register protest to a Tea Party agenda that is failing to catch on with the electorate.

“These pay-per-view town halls make it perfectly clear who GOP members of Congress think they’re working for. If you’re a major donor or a big corporate supporter, the Republicans in Congress are willing to bend over backwards to make sure you get your way. If you’re an ordinary citizen who wants to have your voice heard, tough luck,” Michael B. Keegan, president of People for the American Way, told The National Memo Friday. His group has been active in corralling support for traditional town halls that are, you know, free.

“The right to petition your representatives isn’t accidental to system of government—it’s spelled out in black and white in the First Amendment. It’s a tremendously important part of democracy. The worst possible outcome would be for this to become the norm, so we’re making sure that our activists hear about this trend and that members of Congress hear from activists.

“Congressman Paul Ryan is charging people to attend town halls to hear what he has to say and have a chance to ask a question. Congressmen Ben Quayle and Chip Cravaack aren’t even hosting town halls themselves — they’re attending events hosted for them by friendly organizations with a fee for attendance. This amounts to nothing less than pay-per-view government as the Republicans try to privatize democracy.”