Iraqi Parliament Speaker removed for assaulting Shiite lawmaker

Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani, a Sunni, was forced to go on leave after he ordered his bodyguards to assault a rival Shiite lawmaker.  With the situation between Shiites and Sunnis still divisive, it came as no surprised that Mashhadani will be forced out and replaced by a new Speaker:

Four lawmakers and an aide confirmed the details of the skirmish andthe effort to remove Mr. Mashhadani, including Saleem Abdullah, amember of Parliament and spokesman for Mr. Mashhadani’s bloc, the IraqiConsensus Front.

This incident is among a plethora of other political setbacks in Iraq that are taking a toll.  According to US General Rick Lynch, who commands forces in Southern Baghdad, poor governance and political corruption in security matters represent the two biggest obstacles for continuing effort in Iraq.

Comments

[granny]

You know ... we, as a culture, are so utterly clueless regarding the culture of the Iraqiis, Iranians, Syrians ... pretty much the entire Arab world. Those cultures are not like ours, in almost any respect. It's really unimaginable that we, as a people, could go over there and establish order, and a working social system.

Truly an arrogance that flies in the face of all history - and in this particular case, in the face of all advice.

They have to come to grips with their own issues, as well as deal with all the in-fighting that has plagued those tribal nations for thousands of years; and we should not be standing around waiting, providing target practice in the meantime.

WE, are not going to MAKE those people DO, anything. Hasn't happen for thousands of years. Not going to happen now.

[Chief Editor: Todd]

Exactly! This false idealism that you can change people that have lived in a particular neighborhood for one thousand years has no realism to it whatsoever! It happened to Ghangis Khan when he invaded Afghanistan. It happened to the Soviets when they were in Afghanistan. It happened to the British military all over the Middle East. Now it is happening to us. We need to have someone in the White House that is a history major -- or at least someone that knows their history.