{"id":10787,"date":"2007-05-14T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2007-05-14T13:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/10787.html"},"modified":"2007-05-14T09:00:44","modified_gmt":"2007-05-14T13:00:44","slug":"ignoring-the-iraqi-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/ignoring-the-iraqi-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"Ignoring the Iraqi parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s been quite a bit of discussion<\/a> over the last few days about a majority of the Iraqi parliament endorsing draft legislation calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. It’s one thing for the Bush administration to ignore the will of Americans and their elected representatives in Congress, but are war supporters really prepared to keep troops in a country in which their parliament has asked us to leave?<\/p>\n

Apparently so. Consider this exchange<\/a> from Meet the Press, between Russert and John McCain.<\/p>\n

RUSSERT: [S]enator, the Iraqi parliament, a majority of the Iraqi parliament, has signed a petition asking for a date certain for withdrawal of American troops. If the Iraqi parliament wants it, a majority in the Congress want it, then why do you stand there and say, “No, you can’t have it”?<\/p>\n

McCAIN: Because it’s my job to give my best estimate to the American people, no matter what the political calculations may be, as to what’s the best in our nation’s national security interest. […]<\/p>\n

RUSSERT: But the duly elected people’s bodies, the U.S. Congress and the Iraqi parliament, say they want a troop withdrawal. That’s more than a poll. Isn’t that the voice of the people?<\/p>\n

McCAIN: Well, the–as far as the Iraqi parliament is concerned, the Iraqi government obviously doesn’t feel that way, their–the representatives in their government. Second of all, there is some, a certain amount of domestic political calculations involved there in what the Iraqi, quote, “parliament” said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s rather startling. McCain believes a majority of the U.S. Congress and<\/i> the majority of the Iraqi parliament should be ignored. What’s more, McCain seems to believe Iraq’s legislative body is not only irrelevant, but hardly a legislative body at all, and not necessarily part of the Iraqi government. (I guess we should take its establishment off the list of Iraqi “success” stories?)<\/p>\n

For that matter, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) seems to have a very different opinion on the matter. He told<\/a> CNN’s Wolf Blitzer yesterday, “I read just this week that a significant number of the Iraqi parliament want to vote to ask us to leave. I want to assure you, Wolf, if they vote to ask us to leave, we’ll be glad to comply with their request.”<\/p>\n

I take it that McCain wants to ignore McConnell, too?
\n
\nOne more thing to add to the McCain interview. He used one word<\/a> repeatedly to describe conditions in Iraq.<\/p>\n

* “At least we’re seeing some progress.”<\/p>\n

* “Our commanders on the ground are saying that the Iraqi military is functioning far more effectively, effective, and we are seeing progress there.”<\/p>\n

* “There are [sic<\/i>] some progress being made.”<\/p>\n

After a while, Russert reminded him of recent history.<\/p>\n

RUSSERT: You say we’re making progress. You’ve been on this program talking about Iraq. In 2003…<\/p>\n

McCAIN: Mm-hmm.<\/p>\n

RUSSERT: …you said, “I believe we’ve achieved significant goals”; 2005, we view it as, as “hopeful,” we’re making “progress”; 2006, we’re on the “right track,” “I want to emphasize again” the “good things happening”; we’re “showing signs of success” in 2007. It’s upbeat, upbeat, upbeat.<\/p>\n

McCAIN: I think…<\/p>\n

RUSSERT: And yet the reality is quite different than that kind of optimistic message.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

McCain responded by noting that he’d also criticized parts of the president’s war policy, but that was beside the point. He’s appeared on Meet the Press repeatedly for four years, constantly telling Americans that there’s reason for hope and optimism. In each instance, he’s been wrong.<\/p>\n

What makes McCain think he still has any credibility left?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s been quite a bit of discussion over the last few days about a majority of the Iraqi parliament endorsing draft legislation calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. It’s one thing for the Bush administration to ignore the will of Americans and their elected representatives in Congress, but are war supporters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}