When US combat operations ostensibly ended in Iraq at the end of last year, President Obama took to the airwaves in his weekly radio address to tell Americans that ” A safe and stable Iraq with a democratically elected government is an incredible achievement……” Sounds good, no?
Except when you consider that shortly after American combat troops withdrew, Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered the arrest of Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi on charges that Hashimi was running a death squad involved in the assasination of police and other government officials.
And in the first 40 days since the New Year began, 65 people have been executed in Iraq for various offenses within a justice system cloaked in secrecy. Given that Iraq is less than one tenth the population of the United States this would be the equivalent of roughly 700 executions here.
So ask yourself this: if President Obama issued an arrest warrant for Joe Biden on charges that Biden was running a death squad out of the VP’s office, and there had been 700 executions nationwide in the last 40 days, would you feel safe, stable and secure?
Maybe some further definition of these words is warranted? Maybe Bush and Cheney should be sought out for comment as well?
Does anyone else find it odd that the U.S. and it’s European allies are actively facilitating the establishment of Islamic fundamentalist governments in the Middle East — Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Syria– while excoriating Islamic governance in Iran?