Iraq doesn’t like our offer..go figure.

The US and Iraq have been in ‘negotiations’ for awhile now over a permanent..cough..pact. A pact that will govern how and what we are allowed to do within Iraq’s borders. No matter what Bush says, Iraq is a soveriegn nation, right? Yes, we saved them from themselves and brought democracy to all the citizens of Iraq and yet, they have the audacity to bitch and piss and moan that we are pushing them around. The nerve! (snark) From Reuters:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Friday talks with the United States on a long-term security pact were at a stalemate because of U.S. demands that encroached on Iraq’s sovereignty.

The United States and Iraq are negotiating a new security deal to provide a legal basis for U.S. troops to stay in Iraq after December 31, when their United Nations mandate expires, as well as a separate long-term agreement on political, economic and security ties between the two countries.

Some folks in the Iraqi government have gone so far as to say…wtf dudes? We don’t need your stinking bases and thousands of troops! The wingnut Al-Sadr hasn’t been quiet either on this issue. Flapping his gums so to speak, via a letter, to the great unwashed masses he said this, via CNN:

“the resistance will be exclusively conducted by only one group. This new group will be defined soon by me.”

Sigh…Al-Sadr didn’t stop there of course. He had to bring up the “M” word a few times as well:

“We will not stop resisting the occupation until liberation or martyrdom.”

One of the reasons the deaths in Iraq have dropped is because Al-Sadr’s army is in a ceasefire mode. Bush or Petraeus conveniently forget to mention this when they are bragging about how low the death count has been lately. Johnny McCain doesn’t either. Imagine that.

The Iraqi government is threatening to pull out of the talks and write their own ‘take it or leave it’ pact for the American occupiers. BushCo mouthpieces whine that Iraq is circumventing the whole process by taking their gripes public. Seems the Iraq government just doesn’t cotton to us as the ‘great liberators’. Could this be because we want to build roughly 50 permanent bases in their country, control their airspace and legal immunity for all American soldiers and contractors?

Nah, that can’t be whats pissing them off..cough. Oh Hell No!

Artwork by The Worried Shrimp. Crossposted at Bring It On!

Remember those missing arms shipments..I think we have found them..

Back as far as 2004, plenty of stories came out about the millions of weapons that went missing in Iraq. Check out the crazy bastard in the photo..I think his boys are well-armed at this point in time.

So, I do believe those weapons have been found. They are in the hands of the…cough..militia in Basra and of course that batshit crazy sumbitch Al-Sadr and his wingnuts known as the Mahdi Army. Although we were told that nothing big was missing back then..that appears to be bullshit my dear reader as the Green Zone is currently under siege. Rockets are blasting away at American zones like the Embassy there. From the Salon link:

Reuters reported that a giant column of black smoke could be seen near the U.S. Embassy after what was believed to be a mortar strike on a former palace of Saddam that is being used as a headquarters for American civilian and military personnel. However, an embassy spokeswoman said there had been no serious injuries or deaths as a result of the attack. Four people, including two U.S. civilians, were wounded by mortar attacks in the Green Zone Wednesday.

Then of course, there is the mini-war taking place in Basra. Al-Sadr has told Maliki to fuck off and refuses to disarm his militia as noted in the picture above.
http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1184614595
A Channel 4 news report out of England. At the Five minute point..the British dude admits that the city of Basra has always been controlled by the militias. Isn’t that just fucking grand? From one of the damn links in this post:

In an interview on Al Jazeera TV, Sadr said Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s U.S.-backed government was worse than the regime of Saddam Hussein, who is believed to have ordered the assassination of Sadr’s father, Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq Sadr, in 1999.

Sadr did not renounce a cease-fire he called for his Mahdi Army militia in August, but he said anyone facing foreign occupation had the right to armed resistance.

The bat guano is hitting the fan in Iraq. How is that hand-over to Iraqi’s going for ya Bush? Are they standing up so we can stand down? If King George tells us one more time how great it’s going in Iraq, I will throw something at my tv. When it’s Shiite vs Shiite..it ain’t good.

In Basra, where masked, heavily armed militiamen ruled most streets, residents remained afraid to venture out, even though a curfew was eased during the day. One said they risked being caught in cross-fire, or shot by Iraqi army snipers who could mistake them for militiamen or shot by gunmen guarding the areas they controlled.

Send Lawyers Guns and Money..the shit has hit the fan…again.

Update: Al-Sadr sees the writing on the wall apparently and has issued a statement that he wants all his batshit crazy compadres released..then he will call an end to the fighting..yeah right. I think we have heard this one before..