on the one hand:
Sen. Carl Levin on Monday called for Iraq's parliament to remove Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki from power, saying that al-Maliki is unwilling or unable to solve the political and religious divisions threatening to tear Iraq apart.Trowbridge/DetNews 21.Aug.07
"The Maliki government is nonfunctional and cannot produce a political settlement because it is too beholden to religious and sectarian leaders," Levin said on a conference call after a weekend trip to Iraq for meetings with U.S. and Iraqi leaders. Levin said he hoped Iraq's parliament would vote al-Maliki out of office when it returns next month from its summer recess.
The remarkably blunt assessment from the Democrat from Detroit, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee...
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on the other hand:
AMY GOODMAN: What do you think of Senator Levin calling for the Maliki and the whole government to disband?Nir Rosen/DemocracyNow! 21.Aug.07
NIR ROSEN: Well, it’s stupid for several reasons. First of all, the Iraqi government doesn’t matter. It has no power. And it doesn’t matter who you put in there. He’s not going to have any power. Baghdad doesn’t really matter, except for Baghdad. Baghdad used to be the most important city in Iraq, and whoever controlled Baghdad controlled Iraq. These days, you have a collection of city states: Mosul, Basra, Baghdad, Kirkuk, Irbil, Sulaymaniyah. Each one is virtually independent, and they have their own warlords and their own militias. And what happens in Baghdad makes no difference. So that’s the first point.
Second of all, who can he put in instead? What does he think he’s going to put in? Allawi or some secular candidate? There was a democratic election, and the majority of Iraqis selected the sectarian Shiite group Dawa, Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution, the Sadr Movement. These are movements that are popular among the majority of Shias, who are the majority of Iraq. So it doesn’t matter who you put in there. And people in the Green Zone have never had any power. Americans, whether in the government or journalists, have been focused on the Green Zone from the beginning of the war, and it’s never really mattered. It’s been who has power on the street, the various different militias, depending on where you are -- Sunni, Shia, tribal, religious, criminal. So it just reflects the same misunderstanding of Iraqi politics.
via Uruknet
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What matters is Levin's seen posturing for change. While nothing changes. He's the "chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee". Dude is in charge and has been since a while. He's part of it, has been all along, accomplishing the mission. Getting it done. But the mission isn't what it seems to be.
Levin and his brothers and sisters need to appear to be opposed to things as they are, even as Rove drops from view over the shallow horizon. So that the unseen can gather the resentment and still unfocused rejection of "whatever-this-shit-in-Iraq-is" the American public's now carrying more of every day. So the same guys who did it can then be seen as against it - just like you. Hey! We're all in this together!
