Nbadan
07-14-2008, 12:45 AM
Iraq President Maliki wants the U.S. out of the fortified Green Zone - you know the place were we've built a mansion that would make Saddam Hussein green with envy and the crony Iraqi business-types who have lined their own pockets with U.S. relief money that was supposed to go to build needless things like water plants and electric power plants for all Iraqis want to build multi-million dollar resort hotels/casinos and a Walt Disney World...
Nouri al-Maliki ready to oust US from Iraq green zone
Marie Colvin in Baghdad
The green zone of Baghdad, a highly fortified slice of American suburbia on the banks of the Tigris river, may soon be handed over to Iraqi control if the increasingly assertive government of Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, gets its way.
A senior Iraqi government official said this weekend the enclave should revert to Iraqi control by the end of the year. “We think that by the end of 2008 all the zones in Baghdad should be integrated into the city,” said Ali Dabbagh, the government’s spokesman.
“The American soldiers should be based in agreed camps outside the cities and population areas.
“By the end of the year, there will be no green zone,” he added. “The separation by huge walls makes people feel angry.” Dabbagh acknowledged that getting rid of the green zone would be a huge undertaking, given the thousands of American soldiers, private contractors and foreign workers who live inside. He said the concrete walls that divide it from the rest of the city would be taken down slowly, “depending on the threat and circumstances”.
The prospect may prove disconcerting for the Americans, who have just begun to transfer their diplomatic operations in the zone from Saddam Hussein’s Republican Palace to a new embassy, the largest and most expensive in the world....
Linky (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article4322520.ece)
In reality, Maliki sees the writing on the wall, he has been an ineffectual leader and his government barely controls Baghdad much less the rest of Iraq...he so petrified that the U.S. will oust him and install a new Iraq crony capitalist that he is willing to take his chances with his army against the Shiite and Sunni militias....
Nouri al-Maliki ready to oust US from Iraq green zone
Marie Colvin in Baghdad
The green zone of Baghdad, a highly fortified slice of American suburbia on the banks of the Tigris river, may soon be handed over to Iraqi control if the increasingly assertive government of Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, gets its way.
A senior Iraqi government official said this weekend the enclave should revert to Iraqi control by the end of the year. “We think that by the end of 2008 all the zones in Baghdad should be integrated into the city,” said Ali Dabbagh, the government’s spokesman.
“The American soldiers should be based in agreed camps outside the cities and population areas.
“By the end of the year, there will be no green zone,” he added. “The separation by huge walls makes people feel angry.” Dabbagh acknowledged that getting rid of the green zone would be a huge undertaking, given the thousands of American soldiers, private contractors and foreign workers who live inside. He said the concrete walls that divide it from the rest of the city would be taken down slowly, “depending on the threat and circumstances”.
The prospect may prove disconcerting for the Americans, who have just begun to transfer their diplomatic operations in the zone from Saddam Hussein’s Republican Palace to a new embassy, the largest and most expensive in the world....
Linky (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article4322520.ece)
In reality, Maliki sees the writing on the wall, he has been an ineffectual leader and his government barely controls Baghdad much less the rest of Iraq...he so petrified that the U.S. will oust him and install a new Iraq crony capitalist that he is willing to take his chances with his army against the Shiite and Sunni militias....