Blah, blah, blah: MSM and Dems in cahoots and collusion, again

There has been a flurry of news reports the past week or so about the Iraqi government calling for a timetable on an American troop pullout and giving the Sunni insurgency a nod in acknowledging their "right of resistance".

Sounds a lot like what the Democrats are saying and makes one wonder if the Bush Administration is being left out of the cold.

Unfortunately, we are not getting the straight poop from "reputable" news sources. Here is what three of the big ones are saying.

CNN:Symptoms of withdrawal

The Administration's willingness to discuss removing forces from Iraq, where more than 2,100 Americans have died, followed a sharply worded statement from Iraqi leaders at an Arab League meeting in Cairo last week. The gathering of Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds not only demanded a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops but also gave implicit support to the insurgency by calling resistance "a legitimate right," so long as it doesn't involve "terrorism and acts of violence" against civilians, institutions and houses of worship.

NYT: Iraqis Getting Together

"Iraqi Factions Seek Timetable for U.S. Pullout" is hardly the kind of headline the White House wants to read these days.

WaPost: In Cairo, Clarity on Iraq

So Iraq's Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds finally found something they can agree on. They are jointly demanding that the United States set a timetable for withdrawal of its troops from their country. That's hardly the rallying cry the Bush administration might have hoped for, but perhaps it could provide a base line for stabilizing Iraq.
...
After the Bush administration's mistakes in Iraq, it's not surprising that the Iraqis want liberation.

WaPost: Iraqi Leaders Call for Pullout Timetable

Iraqi leaders at a reconciliation conference reached out to the Sunni Arab community by calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces and saying the country's opposition had a "legitimate right" of resistance.

But, surprisingly, here is how al Jazeera sees it:

Iraqi leaders agree on resistance right

Iraqi politicians have saved a reconciliation conference in Cairo from collapse with a compromise language saying all peoples have a right to resist.

On Monday, all parties to the three-day meeting called by the Cairo-based Arab League agreed to the formula: "Resistance is a legitimate right of all peoples", said Mizhir al-Dulaimi, a Sunni Muslim from the west of Iraq.

Shaikh Imad Muhammad Ali, an official of the Sunni Muslim Iraqi People's Gathering, confirmed the agreement.

The Iraqi government, which depends on US military support, has opposed any language that could be interpreted as support for armed groups that are opposed to the US presence in Iraq and have been fighting to drive US-led troops out of the country.

Sunni Muslims opposed to the government have argued that US occupation is the root cause of the violence in Iraq and US troops should leave as soon as possible.

In the debate in Cairo, Iraqi government representatives conceded a theoretical right to resist occupation, but said that as elected representatives of the people, the government had decided to end foreign occupation gradually, as Iraq builds its own security forces to replace the foreign troops.

Timetable

In an Aljazeera talk show recorded in Cairo on Monday, Hadi al-Amiri, chairman of the Badr Brigades, said the US withdrawal timetable depended on the security situation in Iraq. The Badr Brigades is the Iran-backed military wing of the Shia Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).

"The conferees in Cairo were notified that, before asking for a US withdrawal timetable, there should be a timetable for building strong Iraqi armed forces," he said.

"When this timetable is achieved and implemented successfully, and Iraqi forces can tackle the security situation in Iraq properly, Iraqis can ask for a US withdrawal timetable."

Interior minister

Iraqi troops will be ready to take charge of security in the country by the end of next year, so this month's UN Security Council extension of the mandate for US-led forces in Iraq could be the last, the Interior Minister and senior SCIRI member, Bayan Jabr, said on Monday.

Speaking on Aljazeera, Jabr criticised attacks against foreign forces in Iraq, saying: "What is happening in Iraq has nothing to do with resistance but it is terrorism. They try to target an American tank and it [a bomb] could hit the target once but misses dozens of times and explodes in the middle of our people."

He said foreign troops should stay in Iraq until the country's security forces were trained and ready.

"By mid-next year, we will be 75% done in building our forces, and by the end of next year, it will be fully ready."

Mandate

This month, the Security Council voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the nearly 180,000-strong US-led force in Iraq for a year, a decision the United States called a sign of the international commitment to Iraq's political transition.

"In my opinion, this is the last extension for coalition forces, then Iraq security forces will be in charge within Iraq," Jabr said.

He called fighters to join security forces to bring the withdrawal closer.

"I am asking you to tell them to join. I want to recruit 1200 members and I ask some of those who call themselves resistance fighters to come and join us in the National Unity battalion that includes, Kurds, Shabak, Yazidis, Shias and Sunnis and Turkmen," he said, referring to the country's different ethnic and religious groups.

My take is that 1) the timetable desired is one based on results, not calendars (that's Bush's line, not the Democrat's), 2) the theoretical right to resistance is one that every American acknowledges, and 3) the Iraqi government does not want an American troop withdrawal until after the Sunni insurgency is crushed, or at least until the Iraqi Army is ready to crush them on their own.

As al Jazeera quoted, "Iraqi government representatives conceded a theoretical right to resist occupation" and "What is happening in Iraq has nothing to do with resistance but it is terrorism". I don't see a specific acknowledgement of the right of the Sunni insurgency to take up arms against the duly elected Iraqi government. In American, the South tried that in 1860. This is no different and I don't see the Iraqi government justifying the attacks by the Sunni insurgents on Iraqi or American forces.

I don't know. Maybe I am being too cynical, too jaded, splitting too many hairs. But it seems that while the news organization that serves the Arab people and has been accused of being in bed with our enemies is offering facts, our own news organizations are still in feeding frenzies pouncing on any scrape of juicy and tawdry meat.