Iraqis Protest Against U.S. Presence: White House – It’s Progress!
There are two ways to interprete this:
Tens of thousands of protesters loyal to Moktada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric, took to the streets of the holy city of Najaf on Monday in an extraordinarily disciplined rally to demand an end to the American military presence in Iraq, burning American flags and chanting “Death to America!�
The first interpretation is the most obvious one: Iraqis want the U.S. out of Iraq ASAP. Not a good thing: they want their particular sect to take over.
The second possible interpretation requires a bit more… creativity. Editor and Publisher notes that White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe tried to ‘explain’ to reporters that the mass protests in Iraq lately are signs of “great progress.”
No kidding:
Four years since the fall of Baghad, Iraq “is now a place where people can freely gather and express their opinions, and that was something they could not do under Saddam.” Johndrove said, traveling with President Bush to Arizona.
As The Carpetbagger Report comments, “it must be great to be part of the Bush team, knowing that you’re right, no matter how wrong.”
I have to admit that I had a good laugh when I read the article at Editor and Publisher. It is what I expected of the White House. They become a bit predictable.
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16 Responses to “Iraqis Protest Against U.S. Presence: White House – It’s Progress!”
I could have sworn I seen McClown at the rally. Probably stopped by after a visit to the market in his convertible.
Looks like they finally have national unity on one issue at least— they want us out of their country. Mission accomplished!
Exactly, demonstrations such as this one were a common occurrence during Saddam’s rule. It is good to see that the dialog between the people and the government have resumed. Perhaps, just to illustrate what a long road back it has been, Michael, you could direct us to to some stories detailing the vibrant protests that occurred before Saddam was removed from power. I’ll be waiting.
Somehow this excellent piece has not gotten the exposure it deserves. Possibly because of it’s unlikely provenance:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tish-durkin/iraq-a-place-of-ambivale_b_45145.html
my first reaction was ‘you’ve got to be kidding’ but, despite pwt’s sarcasm, I can see some ‘improvement’. However, I believe that the response to this improvement would be better if the white house added something along the lines of ‘given the fact that these people have decided to air their grievances peacefully, we are encouraging the government of iraq to meet with the representatives of the protest in an attempt to begin the healing of the many wounds this country has suffered. If the US can assist in this dialog in any way, it will’
When I first heard about the protest my thought was, “Well, at least it was peaceful.” Which isn’t that far off the WH spin. I wouldn’t call it “great progress” but it is an encouraging sign for democracy.
The only problem is, and what the WH still doesn’t seem to get is that Democracy and US interests don’t always go hand in hand….
Third interpretation. A bunch of Shiites loyal to Sadr want the U.S. out. But Sadr Shiites hardly make up the majority of the population. So I can’t see how this prostest demonstrates the Iraqi people as a whole want us out. They might, but this protest is not anywhere close to conclusive evidence that they do.
BTW: In the spirit of “Hope Springs Eternal” Mr. Wong inserted a “ten” where Reuters (Reuters!?!?) had none:
What they say: “US out of Iraq now!”
What they mean: “We want a stable functioning democracy that no longer needs to be propped up by a foreign power”. In that regard, we all want the US out, the problem is that the Iraqi people are not yet able to stand on their own. When they are ready, we will leave.
To believe otherwise, (i.e. to believe that these people are wishing the US out so that the sectarian blood bath can begin – which is the belief that the author of this post and the original article seem to hold) is outlandish.
The Unwanted, Led by the Unqualified, to do the Unnecessary, for the Ungrateful.
Its time to leave Iraq.
The Bush administration gets no points for fumbling what should have been another easy chance for PR points, but the protest turns out to have been pretty pathetic. 5,000 to 7,000 protestors in any major Iraqi city would have been on the anemic side, but for Najaf this was a stunningly pathetic showing by al-Sadr’s supporters. CNN had reported that 3,00,000 [sic] had left Sadr City to participate in the protest. Somebody was being a bit optimistic.
The Multi-National Force website has a picture of the protest:
Hey, where did my link go? Here’s the link to the MNF picture again:
jeff- Take a vote then. lol
Hey White Agent -
Nice pithy post you put up there, and no mistakes!
Kudos,
Thunder Snow
jeff- why not let them vote on it? I keep thinking about that poll that had 60% of Iraqis saying that it was ok to kill Americans. Plus anti-US sentiment is way up in countries that we count on to be more moderate like Jordan and Egypt, because of the occupation.
> to believe that these people are
> wishing the US out so that the
> sectarian blood bath can begin
Critics have long seized the cry: “THE CIVIL WAR IN IRAQ IS UNDERWAY! IT’S ALREADY BEGUN!!” You are too late.