Informed Speculation

From Mohammed of Iraq the Model:

Despite being concerned about security developments, the people were very interested in learning about the new strategy of president Bush but since the speech was aired at 5 am in Baghdad, the morning has seen a rush to radio and TV to find out what the president had said.

A few hours later a flood of comments from Iraqi politicians filled the media here and maybe the earliest and most interesting argument was the one that took place between Abdul Kareem Al-Inizi of the UIA (from a branch of the Dawa party that split from the original Dawa of Jafari and Maliki) and Mithal al-Alusi during yesterday’s session of the parliament.

Al-Inizi said “Iraq is not an American state and Bush must consult with us before making such decisions about sending troops…” to which al-Alusi responded by saying “We have an elected prime minister and he was consulted…you and others like yourself wouldn’t be sitting here had America not helped us. They are trying to protect this democracy and they possess what they can offer to help us with the security situation, but what do you have?? Cut the nonsense, ok? Do you think the parliament wants to vote about this? Fine, let’s ask everybody if they want such voting…”

There was only silence in the hall after this and no one said another word about voting.

Another lawmaker from the UIA told the press that Bush was successful in identifying the problems and the ways to fix them.

The Accord Front on the other hand had their reservations and said they were concerned the new strategy might cause more harm than good.

The Kurdish bloc is totally satisfied with the plan to send in more troops.

Ayad al-Samerra’i, a senior Islamic party lawmaker said he supports the presence of American troops and said that terrorists and militias “are the two sides of the same coin” obviously reflects his hope that the new strategy would deal strictly with militias.

The association of Muslim scholars as expected said it was against the new strategy of Bush and warned that new security plans would cost Iraqis and Americans a heavy price.

From the above and from more that we heard we could see that there are different opinions even among members of a single bloc but I also see that a majority supports the new strategy while opposition is coming from extremists who realize that they will be the next target for the government and allied forces.

This was how Baghdad looked to me…

Apparently, Bush’s plan got a better reception in Iraq than it did from his own countrymen…it’s a sign of the times, and not a good one…