Isolation of U.S. Troops - Arab League Call U.S. Withdraw Timetable
(Dear KOS, it's huge. Please put on the center.)
While Cheney and Bush are bustling to campaign their 'No Exit' strategy in Iraq, the Arab League leaders -- include Iraqi President Talabani and Shiite, Kurd, Sunni politicians -- called for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. coalition forces. Further, they declared that the Sunni insurgents are not the terrorists as long as they're not targeting innocent civilians or legitimate institutions.
This is a huge blow to the U.S.-led occupation troops. Arab League's communiqué made the establishment of legitimacy for the Iraqi insurgents as a 'legal' resistant group to fight against U.S.
LINK: msnbc.msn.com/id/10147801
www.MSNBC.com | Conflict in Iraq | 2:40 a.m. TUE. NOV 22, 2005
Iraqi leaders call for U.S. withdrawal timetable
Community leaders say opposition has 'legitimate right' of resistance
By Associated Press | CAIRO, Egypt | NOV. 22 -- Leaders of Iraq's sharply divided Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis called Monday for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces in the country and said Iraq's opposition had a "legitimate right" of resistance.'
The final communique, hammered out at the end of three days of negotiations at a preparatory reconciliation conference under the auspices of the Arab League, condemned terrorism, but was a clear acknowledgment of the Sunni position that insurgents should not be labeled as terrorists if their operations do not target innocent civilians or institutions designed to provide for the welfare of Iraqi citizens.
The participants in Cairo agreed on "calling for the withdrawal of foreign troops according to a timetable, through putting in place an immediate national program to rebuild the armed forces ... control the borders and the security situation" and end terror attacks.
The conference was attended by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish lawmakers, as well as leading Sunni politicians.
Sunni leaders have been pressing the Shiite-majority government to agree to a timetable for the withdrawal of all foreign troops. The statement recognized that goal, but did not lay down a specific time -- reflecting instead the government's stance that Iraqi security forces must be built up first.
Who has imagined this situation?
Now U.S.-led forces are recognized as an invading occupier by Arab world. Already I can see the result even now. Will be the same fate as France, which was rejected by Algerian resistance.
This will probably cause a significance distruction over military mentality -- than any current war, except Vietnam. We, U.S. will never allow to step into any Arab countries in future, ever. I feel such state of determination of Arab countries from this communiqué's contents.
End of 2006?
On Monday, Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr suggested U.S.-led forces should be able to leave Iraq by the end of next year, saying the one-year extension of the mandate for the multinational force in Iraq by the U.N. Security Council this month could be the last.
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In Egypt, the final communique's attempt to define terrorism omitted any reference to attacks against U.S. or Iraqi forces. Delegates from across the political and religious spectrum said the omission was intentional. They spoke to The Associated Press anonymously, saying they feared retribution.
"Though resistance is a legitimate right for all people, terrorism does not represent resistance. Therefore, we condemn terrorism and acts of violence, killing and kidnapping targeting Iraqi citizens and humanitarian, civil, government institutions, national resources and houses of worships," the document said.
Call for release of all 'innocent detainees'
The final communique also stressed participants' commitment to Iraq's unity and called for the release of all "innocent detainees" who have not been convicted by courts. It asked that allegations of torture against prisoners be investigated and those responsible be held accountable.
The statement also demanded "an immediate end to arbitrary raids and arrests without a documented judicial order.
Why Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds collaborated? To avoid the civil war?
Objection against the new constitution, formatted by U.S. federalism?
The communique included no means for implementing its provisions, leaving it unclear what it will mean in reality other than to stand as a symbol of a first step toward bringing the feuding parties together in an agreement in principle.
"We are committed to this statement as far as it is in the best interests of the Iraqi people," said Harith al-Dhari, leader of the powerful Association of Muslim Scholars, a hard-line Sunni group. He said he had reservations about the document as a whole, and delegates said he had again expressed strong opposition to the concept of federalism enshrined in Iraq's new constitution.
The gathering was part of a U.S.-backed league attempt to bring the communities closer together and assure Sunni Arab participation in a political process now dominated by Iraq's Shiite majority and large Kurdish minority.
The conference also decided on broad conditions for selecting delegates to a wider reconciliation gathering in the last week of February or the first week of March in Iraq. It essentially opens the way for all those who are willing to renounce violence against fellow Iraqis.
Shiites had been strongly opposed to participation in the conference by Sunni Arab officials from the former Saddam regime or from pro-insurgency groups. That objection seemed to have been glossed over in the communique.
The Cairo meeting was marred by differences between participants at times, and at one point Shiite and Kurdish delegates stormed out of a closed session when one of the speakers said they had sold out to the Americans.
To read through, every single issue is opposite to the Nov. 16's AEI conference issues, which Cheney and Chalabi strongly denied the U.S. forces withdrawal, and promised the Chalabi's new administration. While Chalabi is playing a clown at the party on the U.S. soil, the Iraqi patriots scrammed with neighbor Arab countries to reject the oppressive occupation. It happened to Algeria in 60's, so will do to Iraq.
Hope, the next invasion into Syria or Iran will never happen in our time.
Nov. 16 - Newsweek Web Exclusive column of Return of Chalabi by Michael Hirsh
"Next Year in Baghdad"
An unrepentant Ahmad Chalabi celebrates his return with his neocon pals