Originally posted by: LilBlinbBlahIce
Originally posted by: Alistar7
The most ironic thing about all the protests so far IMO has been that of the Shia population. They were invited to one of the meetings to help select local leadership, instead they declined, then protested that they wanted a say in the govt......?
They want to follow their religous leader, great, why not send him to the meeting as their leader and have their voice be heard and be part of the chorus of Iraqi citizens that will shape their first government?
I still like seeing the Iraqi people so motivated in their freedom to take control of their country for themselves, immense pride is something Americans and they share, and I feel my country has done all it can to ensure they have every chance to maintain theirs.
The reason they are so pissed off is that the US is going to make sure that any one in power is friendly towards America, weather the Iraqi people like it or not. Like someone else mentioned, they were protesting the APPOINTED governor, not one elected by the people. Remember Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan? Who elected him? He also was appointed, and now he cannot even leave his compound without a Marine escort. Alistar just cannot grasp the notion that the Iraqi's did not want the US in their country before the invasion, and even if they thank the US for liberating them, the want them out NOW. I'm not saying that is right or even feasable, the country would fall into chaos. But to insinuate that the Itaqi's just magically love us now, especially George Bush is retarded.
They do seem to have much appreciation for Bush's effort that gained their freedom.
Why would they be protesting a Peshmerga as their temporary representative, they are the fighting force that has secured their autonomy on the ground in Iraq for the last 12 years?
I was speaking of the protest by the Shia population, they were invited to send reprentatives and potential leaders and they declined, then held a protest to make sure everyone knew they felt they should have been involved in the process, does that make any sense to you?
The Iraqi people are not hostile to our presence as a whole, and considering we were welcomed by the citizens in virtually every major town suggests they were pleased at our arrival. We understand they don't want us to stay and have made every effort to say over and over again we will let them rule themselves. We have accelerated our initial timetable considerably, but we also have a responsibility to leave in place an organized viable and functioning governing body, not chaos.
It has been just over 30 days we conquered (for lack of a better word) an entire nation (no other nation could have even done THIS as quickly), and are working on basic services that were unusable due to neglect, we have a police force of their own people in place in the major cities, one that actually protects them, not terrorizes and oppresses them, and we have had meetings with every major group in all areas to address their concerns and to identify potential local leaders for an interm govt. They need to understand this is not going to happen overnight, their best interest is served by participating fully to ensure their voice is heard and represented eventually.
We also managed this military conquest with the number of civilian casualties so low they are unheard of historically, this shows the great care we took in making every effort possible to spare innocent people from being hurt by our just and welcome actions, certainly had any other country done this the numbers would have been dramatically worse.
IMO US press releases from now on should focus primarily on all progress made towards self rule, highlighting the current Iraqi involvement in the decision making progress. They also need to make very public reliable accounting for every dollar made from the sale of Iraqi oil..
Facebook
Twitter