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thedrifter
04-13-07, 07:48 AM
Apr 12, 10:41 PM EDT
Bush Condemns Green Zone Attack

By DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush condemned Thursday's attack on Iraq's parliament building inside the heavily fortified Green Zone and said the U.S. must continue to help the Baghdad government reconcile the nation.

The president said the attack was against a symbol of democracy - the Iraqi assembly that represents millions of people who voted in recent elections.

"There is a type of person that would walk in that building and kill innocent life and that is the same type of person that is willing to come and kill innocent Americans," Bush said in the Roosevelt Room after meeting with educational leaders. "And it is in our interest to help this young democracy be in a position so it can sustain itself and govern itself and defend itself against these extremists and radicals."

Bush met Thursday with Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who recently visited Iraq.

"My message to the Iraqi government is `We stand with you as you take the steps necessary to not only reconcile politically, but also put a security force in place that is able to deal with these kinds of people,'" Bush said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the attack showed terrorists were determined to destroy the Iraqi people's dreams of democracy, but did not mean that Bush's troop increase in Iraq had failed.

"This is still early in the process and I don't think anyone expected that there wouldn't be counter-efforts by terrorists to undermine the security presence," she said.

Aboard an aircraft flying home from meetings in Canada, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, "Nobody ever anticipated you'd have perfect security inside Baghdad, and I think that ... it's premature to talk about it until we have some idea what actually happened and who might have been responsible."

McCain said the bombing could not take away from the initial, small successes of the surge. "It makes all of us sad for these public servants who have been injured or killed, but I don't think you can change the larger picture (that) we are achieving some small successes," said McCain, a presidential candidate who has been a vocal supporter of the war effort.

After meeting with Bush, Graham said the extra U.S. troops are aimed at providing better security to allow the Iraqi government to reconcile the country. He said that he believes that Sunnis, who boycotted the December 2005 elections, would vote if local elections were held today.

"They didn't believe democracy was in their self-interest," Graham said. "There's been a sea change. If we had local elections - by September if possible - I think Sunnis would participate and to me, that would be a giant step forward in terms of democracy."

Congressional Democrats said the bombing was evidence that substantial progress was not being made in the war.

"How the president and people around him can say things are going well is really hard to comprehend," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Added Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.: "This is the progress we've been hearing about? And tell me, how are more American troops going to stop a single fanatic with explosives strapped to his chest?"

Ellie

thedrifter
04-13-07, 09:19 AM
The Real Story about the Iraqi Parliament Bombing
Posted By Blackfive

From a StateDept source that works with agencies of the Iraqi Parliament:

First and foremost of all, I want to thank all of you who have rushed e-mails and calls to me to see that I am Ok, in light of the suicide bombing of the Iraqi Parliament cafeteria. It was most heartening.

For those of you who did not care enough to e-mail me, it's OK, I'm all right.

Actually, depite the reporting I've heard from CNN, BBC and NPR, which keeps up the ominous drone of doom about the terrorists breaching the Parliament buliding in "the heart of the heavily fortified Green Zone," the FACT is the Parliament buliding is NOT IN the Green Zone. We turned it over to the Iraqis in 2006. And when it was, it was at the outer NW edge of the Green or International Zone.

Of course, no one here especially expects the press, with its now, 4 year old biases to get it right. But that being said, I am beginning to believe there is something else going on here that this episode illustrates, which in an unfortunately perverse way, suggests deeper progresss.

The attack was carried out by Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), the Mesopotamian affiliate of bin Laden's parent corporation. (Actually, it's more like a cooperative) It was directed in the first instance against what it sees are Sunni Quislings, who advocate the apostacy of political integration in finding a political "solution" to this strife.

The AQI started doing that in Al Anbar a while ago, attacking tribal leaders who decided to try to leverage a political resolution into all kinds of advantages, some high-minded, many not. After a few moths of attacks on these indigenous tribes many of the tribal leaders havebegan turning vilently and relentlessly against AQI. they began turning them in, but usually just tracked them down and killed them...by the truckloads.

If that begins to happen in Baghdad we have a real paradigm shift.

[redacted] noted correctly the other day when the Shia were demonstarting in Najaf for the expelling of the Coalition "occupiers," the most significant and perdominant visual was the crowds waving the Iraqi flag; not the green banner of Shia or the black martyrs' flags. That act of nationalism, even though likely staged, had to resonante with a sizeable portion of the demonstartors. At least the leadership felt the need or advantage of doing that.

You'll never get the press to talk about this in that way, but it's probably a fairer indication of trends here.

As you can see, I'm still hopeful and confident that we can prevail here, or maybe I should say the Iraqis can prevail......no, it is we that must prevail.

Ellie