rational geekery

The Iraqi Parliament

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Moves to reconcile the fractious political parties within Iraq’s fledgling democracy took a hit on Saturday, as delegates stormed out of a conference designed to build bridges in the troubled country.

An Iraqi Christian speaker infuriated Shiite and Kurdish representatives when he branded them American stooges, and questioned the legitimacy of the Baghdad parliament.

It’s hard to believe that the Iraqi people will ever consider their government as legitimate while US forces continue to have a presence in the country.  Now is the time to pull out coalition forces and force the hand of the insurgency; only when the cause of discontent is removed can the Iraqi people really start to rebuild their shattered country.

From CNN.com:

They are insulting the Iraqi people and they are insulting the constitution on which several million Iraqis have voted,” Shiite legislator Jawad al-Maliki told reporters outside the chamber. “They want the situation in Iraq to go back to the way it used to be so that the mass graves can return.”

Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kuba accused al-Youssefi of “supporting in a way or another” the insurgency in Iraq.

“This is totally unacceptable,” Kuba told the pan-Arab satellite channel, Al-Arabiya.

Arab foreign ministers, particularly Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, promptly engaged the Shiite and Kurdish delegates and urged them to return to the chamber.

Within the hour, Sunni delegate Mohammed Shehab al-Dulaimi told reporters that the conference had resumed after the delegate apologized and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa had ruled that al-Youssefi’s comments would be struck from the record.