NYT: In Break With Bush, Iraqi Leader Assails Israel

[kpete]

In Break With Bush, Iraqi Leader Assails Israel
By EDWARD WONG and MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Published: July 19, 2006

The Times's Greg Myre on Olmert's West Bank Strategy
BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 19 - Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq on Wednesday forcefully denounced the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, marking a sharp break with President Bush's position and highlighting the growing power of a Shiite Muslim identity across the Middle East.

"The Israeli attacks and airstrikes are completely destroying Lebanon's infrastructure," Mr. Maliki said at an afternoon news conference inside the fortified Green Zone, which houses the American embassy and the seat of the Iraqi government. "I condemn these aggressions and call on the Arab League foreign ministers' meeting in Cairo to take quick action to stop these aggressions. We call on the world to take quick stands to stop the Israeli aggression."

The American Embassy did not answer a reporter's request for a response.

The comments by Mr. Maliki, a Shiite Arab whose party has close ties to Iran, were noticeably stronger than those made by Sunni Arab governments in recent days. Those governments have refused to take an unequivocal stand on Lebanon, reflecting their concern about the growing influence of Iran, which has a Shiite majority and has been accused by Israel of providing weapons to Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/world/middleeast/19cnd-shiites.html?ex=1310961600&en=d8f9318d0a15bec5&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[High Plains]

1. Wow, Israel succeeds at splitting us off even from our own puppets.

Just more collateral damage.

[Redstone]

2. In their world, it only matters if you're a Shite (typo intentional) or a

Sunny-D. And if you learn the difference between the two, it becomes even more ridiculous than the Catholics fighting Protestants in Ireland, and that's saying something.

Laughable in a painful sorta way, actually, but for Christ's sake (intentional as well), killing each other over who was Mohammed's favorite, almost two thousand years ago?

That has to tell you that there's no reasoning with (yes, I'm going to say it...) those people.

Redstone

[Ravenseye]

7. racist much?

[Redstone]

8. Nope. Realist. You don't know me very well, do you?

Short lesson: Religion does not equal race.

End of lesson.

Redstone

[AlamoDemoc]

3. Mr. al-Malaki should know what it feels like to live under occupation

....and be hopeless useless no-good installed poppet head-of-state.

[Cocoa]

4. he could get fired for saying that

or at least written up.

He should be expecting some low-level Bush appointee to call him into his office and tell him what's what.

[Sensitivity]

5. America deceives itself when it ignores the effect of Israel on its world

image and position.

[Redstone]

9. Whatever that's supposed to mean.

Redstone

[NNN0LHI]

6. If Maliki wasn't saying what his American handlers were telling him to...

...say he would find himself standing out on Haifa Street rather than living in the protected comforts of the Green Zone.

I wonder why the NYT doesn't mention that?

Don