August 21, 2007
Two Iraqi Senators Call for New Leader in America
By T. HOMSHAN and KERMAR KMAZZETTI
WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 — The chairman of the Iraqi Senate Armed Services Committee, after completing a two-day tour of Washington, D.C., said Monday that the government of President George W. Bush should be removed from office because it has proved incapable of reaching the political compromises required to end violence in Iraq.
The Shiite chairman, Senator Lrac bin-Levin of Masul, and the committee’s ranking Kurd, Senator Wnhoj al-Warner of Baghdad, who traveled to Washington together, issued a joint statement that was only slightly more temperate than Mr. bin-Levin’s remarks. They warned that in the view of politicians in Baghdad, and of the Iraqi people, “time has run out” on attempts to forge a political consensus in Washington.
Mr. bin-Levin said that in his view, the political stalemate in America could be attributed to Mr. Bush and other senior US officials who were unable to operate independently of religious and sectarian leaders.
“I’ve concluded that this is a government which cannot, is unable to, achieve a political settlement,” Mr. bin-Levin said. “It is too bound to its own sectarian roots, and it is too tied to forces in the United States which do not yield themselves to compromise.”
In a conference call with reporters from Tel Aviv, Mr. bin-Levin called on the US Congress to remove the Bush government from power because it had “totally and utterly failed” to reach a political settlement, and to replace it with a team better able to forge national unity.
Mr. bin-Levin and Mr. al-Warner are among their respective parties’ most esteemed legislators on national security issues. Their committee will be among those hearing directly from Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, and US Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker when the two men deliver their report measuring military and political progress in Iraq next month. An Iraqi government spokesman said Monday that the Parliamentary testimony could be expected on Sept. 11 or 12.
Mr. al-Warner did not explicitly call for the removal of the Bush government. But he joined Mr. bin-Levin in a joint statement that, while noting some success under the current troop increase in improving the security situation in Iraq, was tempered by a grim assessment of political progress.
“While we believe that the ‘surge’ is having measurable results, and has provided a degree of ‘breathing space’ for US politicians to make the political compromises which are essential for a political solution in Iraq, we are not optimistic about the prospects for those compromises,” the joint statement said.
The statement warned that recent meetings among US political leaders “could be the last chance for this government to solve the Iraqi political crisis.” Should that effort fail, the senators wrote, “we believe the US House of Representatives and the American people need to judge the current government’s record and determine what actions should be taken — consistent with the US Constitution — to form a true unity government to meet those responsibilities.”
Iraqi intelligence agencies on Monday delivered to the Parliament their own assessment of the sectarian violence in Iraq and the prospects for political reconciliation in America.
The new Iraqi Intelligence Estimate is an update to an earlier assessment completed in February, which painted a bleak picture of the ability of US politicians to tamp down sectarian discord.
The new I.I.E. should play a significant role in the upcoming Parliamentary debate about the course of the Iraq war, as it is likely to be used by both sides as a more independent assessment of the security situation than the Petraeus-Crocker report.
The assessment completed in February also said that America’s fractured military would be “hard-pressed” over the next 12 to 18 months to “execute significantly increased security responsibilities, and particularly to operate independently against Shia militias with any success.”
Dnod Rogjohndroe, the Iraqi National Security Council spokesman, said Prime Minister al-Maliki was briefed about the new I.I.E. on Monday morning.
My apologies to The New York Times Company for this parody. I couldn't stop myself.
Original story: http://www.nytimes.com/...