Tuesday a majority of the Iraqi parliment signed a petition calling for the United States to end the occupation of their country. It was non-binding, but it has the power to force the speaker to bring up a binding resolution. 144 called for the US to set up a timetable for withdrawal.
You can read the details in an Alternet news article at
http://www.alternet.org/...
titled "Majority of Iraqi Lawmakers Now Reject Occupation".
By Raed Jarrar and Joshua Holland
This article details how the Parliament is divided and how the nationalists seem to have now gotten the upper hand over the American and British supported separatists. The nationalists are trying to hold the Iraqi state together. The term "separatists" are the groups who oppose a unified Iraq with a strong central government. Maliki's govt are separatists who favor partitioning Iraq into 3 regions, oppose a US withdrawal timetable, and favor privatizing Iraq's 3rd most oil in the world.
The majority of Shia, Sunni and Kurdish peoples support the nationalists idea of a unified Iraq with a strong central government and want the US to set a withdrawal timetable even if in the short term violence increases.
Expect the nationalist factions to form a united front in the next few weeks. Perhaps this recent Iraqi vote is galvanizing the republicans to meet today with Bush voicing their no-confidence. This vote also indicates to me that the Iraqi Parliament will not give Bush/Cheney/Big Oil the Oil Law that this whole occupation is about. 3rd most oil in the world, virtually undeveloped, and the US is only a vote away in Parliament to getting its hands on the PRIZE.
Oh did you notice that this story was on NONE of the news media?