Condi's surprise" visit to Baghhdad. Bringing gun control to Iraq.
This is a truly amazing news piece.
AP reports:
"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mocked anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as a coward on Sunday, hours after the radical leader threatened to declare war unless U.S. and Iraqi forces end a military crackdown on his followers. . . 'I know he's sitting in Iran,' Rice said dismissively, when asked about al-Sadr's latest threat to lift a self-imposed cease-fire with government and U.S. forces. 'I guess it's all-out war for anybody but him,' Rice said. 'I guess that's the message; his followers can go to their deaths and he's in Iran.'"
Right -- and when W. said "bring 'em on," he was rolling around Fallujah looking for IEDs.
I think it's rich Condi is mocking a guy, who's lobbing shells at the biggest US embassy in the world with impunity, while at the same time telling her foreign service employees to either volunteer to go to Baghdad, sleep in their PPEs, or be forced to go.
She's got some nerve. -
For his part, crazed, radical, anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr registered his disapproval of Rice's visit and demanded an end to the al-Maliki "government's" crackdown on the Jaish al-Mahdi (JAM). He then threatened all out war.
Sadr: "So I am giving my final warning ... to the Iraqi government ... to take the path of peace and abandon violence against its people. If the government does not refrain ... we will declare an open war until liberation.'"
Sounds like, all and all, a typical Condi visit to a foreign country; mortars exploding, gun fire in the distance, all out war etc. . .
Another interesting thing to come out of this "surprise" visit is the revelation that Condi believes in strict gun control.
McClatchy reports:
"Rice used her visit to praise Maliki's choice to take on the militia. Fighting Sadr, who has declared that resistance against U.S. forces is legitimate, is an 'internal Iraqi matter,' she said. [That's why the special forces and the Navy are helping out the army as it disintegrates]
'But clearly, the prime minister has laid down some ground rules which any functioning democratic state would insist upon, having to do with, you know, arms belonging to the state, not to -- not in private hands,' she said."
Guns not in private hands. Rules any democratic state would insist upon, huh? Like DC, for instance, or Philadelphia?
Somewhere in ancient history I remember something about another democratic state which insisted that democracy was protected by armed citizens and militias, something along the lines of:
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Condi may think al-Maliki will be able to disarm all the "rogue" militias in Iraq but, as I recall reading a while back, the Pentagon has managed to lose about "190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005." [maineindymedia]
It's kind of hard for the state get guns out of private hands when the US military is handing them out by the C-130-load.
AP reports:
"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mocked anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as a coward on Sunday, hours after the radical leader threatened to declare war unless U.S. and Iraqi forces end a military crackdown on his followers. . . 'I know he's sitting in Iran,' Rice said dismissively, when asked about al-Sadr's latest threat to lift a self-imposed cease-fire with government and U.S. forces. 'I guess it's all-out war for anybody but him,' Rice said. 'I guess that's the message; his followers can go to their deaths and he's in Iran.'"
Right -- and when W. said "bring 'em on," he was rolling around Fallujah looking for IEDs.
I think it's rich Condi is mocking a guy, who's lobbing shells at the biggest US embassy in the world with impunity, while at the same time telling her foreign service employees to either volunteer to go to Baghdad, sleep in their PPEs, or be forced to go.
She's got some nerve. -
For his part, crazed, radical, anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr registered his disapproval of Rice's visit and demanded an end to the al-Maliki "government's" crackdown on the Jaish al-Mahdi (JAM). He then threatened all out war.
Sadr: "So I am giving my final warning ... to the Iraqi government ... to take the path of peace and abandon violence against its people. If the government does not refrain ... we will declare an open war until liberation.'"
Sounds like, all and all, a typical Condi visit to a foreign country; mortars exploding, gun fire in the distance, all out war etc. . .
Another interesting thing to come out of this "surprise" visit is the revelation that Condi believes in strict gun control.
McClatchy reports:
"Rice used her visit to praise Maliki's choice to take on the militia. Fighting Sadr, who has declared that resistance against U.S. forces is legitimate, is an 'internal Iraqi matter,' she said. [That's why the special forces and the Navy are helping out the army as it disintegrates]
'But clearly, the prime minister has laid down some ground rules which any functioning democratic state would insist upon, having to do with, you know, arms belonging to the state, not to -- not in private hands,' she said."
Guns not in private hands. Rules any democratic state would insist upon, huh? Like DC, for instance, or Philadelphia?
Somewhere in ancient history I remember something about another democratic state which insisted that democracy was protected by armed citizens and militias, something along the lines of:
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Condi may think al-Maliki will be able to disarm all the "rogue" militias in Iraq but, as I recall reading a while back, the Pentagon has managed to lose about "190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005." [maineindymedia]
It's kind of hard for the state get guns out of private hands when the US military is handing them out by the C-130-load.
Labels: Baghdad, Condoleezza Rice, Gun control, muqtada al-sadr, US embassy Baghdad
posted by William Duane at 12:27 AM
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