Iraqi Vice President hints U.S. should leave

How many more Iraqi officials will have to reject our occupation before we finally have the courage to change policy?  Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, said that the U.S. occupation in his country is what is motivating extremists to inflict harm on innocent civilians:

Tariq al-Hashimi had this to say in an interview with Newsweek:

"[Whoever] is actually behind this continuous violence is very muchwilling to kick the Arabs from participation in the government andabort the national unity government and its political platform.  In my view, the continuous violence is directly attributed to foreigninterference in Iraqi internal issues. I can't see any interest orbenefit to Iraqis to aggravate security and make things difficult forthe government or for the Iraqi people in general. It's foreigninterference."

See, we have every reason to believe that al-Hashini means what he says.  Why?  From a political leverage standpoint, al-Hashini and his Sunni coalition actually needs the U.S. to remain involved, otherwise nothing is to stop the Shiite majority from inflicting harm on Sunni minority rights.  The U.S. is pressuring the Shiite majority to let the Sunnis be part of the political process.  But Now, the Sunnis are saying that the U.S. remaining in Iraq is more of a detractor to Iraqi security than unrestrained Shiite-imposed dominance.  That is a powerful statement.

This comes as more violence erupted across Iraq on Thursday morning.  A Sunni suicide bomber went into a Shiite shrine in Najaf and detonated his explosives, killing 30 and injuring 60.
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Other sites blogging about this issue: The Common Ills, Media Matters for America, Nevada Thunder, TruthOut, CJR Daily, The Nation, The Agonist, Baghdad Girl, Unclaimed Territory, VOA News, Hot Air, TPM Cafe.