Operation Iraqi Freedom
2005 -Freedom's Foundations have names
The New York Times April 6, 2005
Iraqis in Accord on Top Positions, Ending Deadlock By EDWARD WONG
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 5 - Iraq's major political parties agreed Tuesday evening to appoint a president and two vice presidents at a meeting of the national assembly on Wednesday, breaking a two-month deadlock in negotiations to form a new government, senior Iraqi officials said.
The assembly is expected to select Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader, as president; Adel Abdul Mahdi, a prominent Shiite Arab politician, as vice president; and Sheik Ghazi al-Yawar, the Sunni Arab president of the interim government, as the other vice president, said Hussein al-Shahristani, an assembly vice speaker.
The agreement ends a stark impasse between the main parties that had threatened to wreck the confidence built during the Jan. 30 elections, when Iraqis defied insurgent threats to walk in droves to polling stations. The Iraqi public has shown increasing impatience with the gridlock, and American military commanders have warned that a continued lack of a government could lead to a rise in insurgent violence.
The Kurds had been pushing hard for Mr. Talabani to be president, and the Shiite parties said weeks ago that they would respect the nomination. Although the prime minister, likely to be a Shiite, will wield the most power, Mr. Talabani's appointment will give the Kurds strong leverage in the new government and in negotiations over the permanent constitution, during which the Kurds will no doubt press for broad autonomy.
The president and vice presidents, who make up the presidency council, will have two weeks to pick a prime minister, who would then select a cabinet. The new government would have to be approved by a majority vote of the assembly.
Because a two-thirds vote of the 275-member assembly is needed to install the presidency council, the main Shiite and Kurdish blocs, which together have enough seats to meet that requirement, haggled for weeks to try to use their leverage to its maximum. They debated issues from control of oil revenues to the role of Islam in the new government. More recently, the two blocs argued with Sunni Arab parties over who should get the top government posts.
Party leaders say they are close to a final agreement on cabinet positions, but have put off compromise on the larger strategic issues until the installation of the government.
Dr. Shahristani, a nuclear physicist and prominent member of the Shiite bloc, said the presidency council could officially appoint the prime minister as soon as Wednesday evening or Thursday. The leading candidate for that job is Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the head of the Dawa Islamic Party, a religious Shiite party. ...The political stalemate appeared to be coming to an end..."
Leaders of the main Shiite Arab and Kurdish political blocs have said it was crucial to bring the Sunni Arabs into the political process in order to dampen the insurgency. The Sunni Arabs largely boycotted the elections and so have few seats in the assembly. In recent days, the Shiites and Kurds have been negotiating with the Sunnis Arab over who should take the vice presidential slot that the parties had agreed should go to a Sunni.
On Tuesday evening, three Sunni groups each presented a list of three candidates to the Shiite and Kurdish blocs, and the one name that appeared on all the lists was that of Sheik Yawar, Dr. Shahristani said.
The Shiites and Kurds agreed more than a week ago that Mr. Talabani should be president and Mr. Abdul Mahdi should be a vice president. After reviewing the Sunni lists on Tuesday, they settled on Sheik Yawar as the other vice president, completing the selection process, Dr. Shahristani said. "He was the common denominator, if you like, of all the lists," Dr. Shahristani added.
Adnan Pachachi, a prominent Sunni politician and former foreign minister, gave a different version of events. He said that on Tuesday afternoon, a group of more than 80 Sunni Arab leaders met in Baghdad to decide whom they should nominate for vice president. Mr. Pachachi said most endorsed him but decided to present a list of three names to the Shiites and Kurds.
The two blocs then selected Sheik Yawar rather than Mr. Pachachi from the list, Mr. Pachachi said. The sheik "is not the choice of the Sunni Arabs," he said.
On Sunday, the national assembly appointed Hajim al-Hassani, an American-educated Sunni Arab politician, as its speaker, a mostly symbolic post.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
December 13,2003:
GOD BLESS AMERICA !"
Since Cain & Abel, first brothers in the Old Testament, we ARE our Brothers' Keepers, and it will always be the task of the Free People of Earth to team up and overthrow the murderous tyrant. Issues of WMD's are extraneous ...a mere threat,compared to the the routine sociopathy of Hussein and his Government: his mass murders, his blatant thievery of his nation's wealth for personal use, and absolute irresponsibility in the care of his people.
I am very proud to be a citizen among the Free Nations on Earth right now, and only wish they would not feel so deferential about their good work. We are literate and informed enough to be sure that if we fail to unseat tyrants, we will BE unseated...the only question is "when"?
Our Soldiers will be done in the Middle East soon, and home, to be sent in small-scale and sporadically, as needed, to help the amazing new Middle East stay on its new feet. I am so proud of all involved, and when we had our not-proud moment, we bore our burden, and made compensations.
I hope we plan to find a way to celebrate and honor our returning heroes, and especially those who will not return, the Iraq Coalition Casualties. Some things must not be overlooked, or we are not worth their sacrifice.
I am a Connecticut Native, though nearly 20 happy years were spent in North Carolina, and so must note, specially, Connecticut's Military War Casualties, and today 10-15-04, a CT Civilian diplomatic aide in Baghdad joins the list." Eric D. Miner, 44, of Brooklyn, Conn., was one of at least three employees of DynCorp International killed in the first explosion in the open-air bazaar where U.S. contractors, soldiers and Iraqis were shopping for Persian rugs and DVDs, officials said." (CTnow/Hartford,CT Courant Newspaper)
And Tarheel family and friends in North Carolina may find this list of NC war-related deaths, from the Raleigh News and Observer informative and comforting.
As usual, the Mahatma was right.......
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall--Think of it, ALWAYS." -- Mahatma Gandhi 
In its first public act, Iraq's new governing council declared April 9 as a national holiday marking Saddam's fall from power and wiped out six dates that were celebrated under the old regime.
Tillman Eulogized As Hero, Overachiever By MAY WONG, Associated Press Writer SAN JOSE, Calif. - Pat Tillman was remembered Monday as an honorable man who overachieved on the football field then became a war hero when he died in Afghanistan after walking away from a multimillion-dollar contract to join the U.S. Army. "While many of us will be blessed to live a longer life, few of us will ever live a better one," said Sen. John McCain. R-Ariz., who spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. "He was a most honorable man." Friends, family and others gathered to mourn Tillman in his hometown _ to remember a man so moved by the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that he walked away from a fortune with the Arizona Cardinals to fight for his country. Tillman, 27, died April 22 in a firefight near the Pakistan border as he was leading his team to help comrades caught in an ambush. The Army gave few details of how Tillman was killed, but said he was fatally shot while fighting "without regard for his personal safety." NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Hall of Famer Gene Upshaw, executive director of the players' union, were among those who attended Monday's public memorial at a municipal rose garden. About 3,000 people attended the ceremony. "The underlying thing was his courage and selflessness on the athletic field, in his community and now as a soldier," Tagliabue told reporters before the service. Tillman was eulogized by politicians, celebrities, former coaches and family members. Tillman's brother, Kevin, who served in the same battalion, was also at the ceremony. California's first lady, Maria Shriver, read a letter from her husband, who was visiting soldiers in Germany on Monday. "I was told he admired me but it's the reverse ...," the letter said. "Pat's journey, that's the American dream and he sacrificed that. That to me is a real hero." Shriver said Tillman epitomized the message her uncle, John F. Kennedy delivered in his presidential inauguration 43 years ago. "My uncle once said, 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.' You, Pat, have lived those words," she said. Last week, the military posthumously promoted Tillman, a member of the Army's elite Ranger unit since 2002, from specialist to corporal. He also was awarded a Purple Heart and Silver Star. Tillman attended San Jose's Leland High School and was drafted by the Cardinals after starring at Arizona State University. He became the Cardinals' starting safety and broke the franchise record for tackles in 2000. "It was an honor to coach Pat," former Cardinals assistant Larry Marmie said. "I learned a lot from him. Players often look for the respect from their coaches. I found myself trying to earn Pat's respect." Though he never publicly offered reasons for his decision to join the Army, several friends have said the terrorist attacks affected him deeply. "He wasn't interested in headlines," Upshaw said. "But he was interested in giving everything for a cause, whatever the cause may be." Tillman was assigned to A Company, 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, and was based at Fort Lewis, Wash. He was one of about 100 U.S. soldiers to have been killed in Afghanistan since the United States invaded in 2001. He is the first NFL player killed in combat since Buffalo offensive tackle Bob Kalsu died in the Vietnam War. Nineteen NFL players were killed in World War II. "I came to pay my respects," said Joel Cascio, a San Jose resident who served two years in the Navy during the mid-1960s. "He put his career aside. That's a courageous thing to do, no matter what walk of life." Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Update note, October 2003: It is not the new Iraqi Holidays, but Ramadan, the Oldest one, that is provoking Holy War for Holy Day Observance among the extreme factions of a religion nearly as old as civilization. Ramadan, the Islamic "month of blessing", begins on October 27th and ends on November 26th in 2003. Find detailed information on this time of prayer, fasting and charity here. About Ramadan. |
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