Citizen Paul talks to Netanyahu
DIRECTLY
It is important for you to read this message…
The Final Solution for Israel and Palestine can only happen with your help — but you will bring never-ending shame and sorrow to all of the Jewish people throughout the World if you do not act on this plan to demonstrate that Israel is and can act in a Human way toward other human beings.
As the year 2010 begins, one year into the Obama presidency, prospects for a just and sustaining resolution of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians seem more hopeless than ever. This is the harsh reality we all face! But for the Palestinians in the West Bank and especially Gaza, this hopelessness is a slow-motion death sentence – the death of a better future!
When Obama was elected, moderate Israelis and all Palestinians in the occupied territories dared to envision the resumption of serious negotiations leading to a lasting peace, and the most audacious thought imaginable — the establishment of a Palestinian homeland. Obama represented a fresh and vigorous new beginning – a new American president who would champion the Palestinian Cause as a moral imperative.
Obama represented the end of our duplicity and the beginning of our national redemption! His election represented a new beginning for Israel as well!
Obama is discovering that the generation of Israeli leaders now in power – including you, Mr. Netanyahu – lack the spiritual courage to right this historical wrong – to negotiate and conclude an honorable peace settlement with your Semitic Palestinian brothers and sisters, who are Semitic just as you are, Mr. Netanyahu. You lack the moral imagination to step out from behind your insular shield of victimhood and to see clearly and appreciate the legitimate anguish of your perceived enemies, the Palestinian people. You have sacrificed your collective humanity on the altar of entitlement. You have become inhuman and have become a disgrace to noble American Jews like Anna Baltzer who we feature in our book, and to all Americans for whom I speak.
Mr. Netanyahu, this has been your duplicitous history – your government’s history – right up to the present. You offer vague assurances and desires for peace that ring hollow, then crush any hope for optimism by demonstrating just the opposite. Recently you announced that 700 more apartment units would be constructed in east Jerusalem, in the three Jewish enclaves that have been relentlessly strangling the Arab neighborhoods for years.
The Palestinians, as you well know, claim east Jerusalem as their own, and want it for the future capital of an independent Palestine. Israel annexed the entire city following the 1967 bogus war which you started by bombing the Egyptian and Jordanian air forces on the ground when “negotiations” were still going on, in violation of international law — while a woman Mossad agent kept President Lyndon Johnson busy in her own White House bedroom while your secret prewar bombing surprise attack took place. Your successive governments have been developing, stealing and encroaching into Palestinian communities ever since.
This gross disrespect, and the criminal seizure of the property of your fellow Semitic Arab citizens of Jerusalem, represents the perfect metaphor for Israeli aggression throughout the West Bank. It is emblematic of your blind sense of entitlement, and complete void of honor and humanity, Mr. Netanyahu. It represents who you have been, who you are and what you stand for!
But it doesn’t have to be this way in the future, and it doesn’t have to represent your history in Israeli politics. There is another way, and there is another path for you to take as Prime Minister – a path that can bring redemption to your legacy.
With profound hopelessness comes the opportunity for greatness – for you and the state of Israel! You can break all of us out of this cycle of despair and failure. You can provide the Palestinians in Gaza and Jerusalem and the West Bank with a future. You can save Israel from itself!
The subjugation and domination of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip have always been predicated on the tragically false notion that the security of Israel required it, and that your historic “religion” falsely allowed you to desecrate your humanity … by killing the native population of Palestinians whose land it really belonged to! If you should somehow succeed in this vile inhumane effort, you and Israel and yes – Jews worldwide will be damned forever more. This has been based on the inhumane and irrational notion that the Palestinian people are the natural and inevitable enemies (and inferiors) of Israel — and that you are entitled to forcibly remove them from the West Bank — and destroy them in Gaza because of your “Religion.”
What Religion would approve of that?
This fallacy – this endless tragedy – has corrupted the moral foundation of Jews and Israel worldwide for far too long. It is time for Israel to radically change course. It is time to remove this poison from your society once and for all. It is time for the Palestinians to be accorded the respect and dignity they have so long deserved. It is time for Israel to begin the road to redemption by doing all that is necessary to establish an independent Palestinian state!
You must belatedly accept that all human beings have Equal Rights!”*
As the Prime Minister of Israel, you alone are capable of moving this process forward. We understand that you would come under criticism starting with political fire from your base, the settlement community and the right wing of the Likud (formerly Irgun) Party that put you back into office. You might very well not survive politically, as fragile as your coalition is. A sincere peace and reconciliation effort on your part might quickly collapse and die under an onslaught from the opposition – from your very allies.
But such an effort is the one true hope if the security of Israel is to be achieved — if Israel is to have any respect throughout the world.
Mr. Netanyahu, you can immediately begin this process by removing the inhumane barriers and strangling restrictions that make Gaza a living hell for its impoverished residents. This deplorable situation is reminiscent of the Warsaw ghetto during World War II, where Jews were surrounded, terrified and starved by the Nazis.
Gaza represents a grotesque contradiction to the principles that Israel and America stand for in so many other ways. The Gaza Blockade – this horrible blight on Israel’s soul – must end now, and it is within your power, Mr. Netanyahu, to do it!
End this travesty and allow humanitarian and reconstruction aid to pour into that beleaguered area. Your redemption can begin with this single act of political courage – and we will stand with you against the outcry that would surely come from within your own radical party personified by Avigdor Lieberman, your own Foreign Minister — imported from Soviet Moldova! The international community of free nations will stand by you and work with you as well.
Great leaders make courageous decisions that often go against the grain – decisions that shape a better future. You can be such a leader Mr. Prime Minister.
The ultimate security for Israel lies in your resolution of the Palestinian Question.
The renewal and elevation of Israel’s moral standing lies in that resolution as well.
Thank you for heeding what I am saying. I speak for all knowledgeable and responsible American Citizens of all Religions and Ethnicity.
* Please read our copy of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. This is what we all believe!
Sincerely,
Citizen Paul, President and Founder
Goals for Americans Foundation
An Israeli shell or bomb explodes on a target in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on January 13, 2009.
A Palestinian woman holds up a portrait of her son, Nedal, one of 29 members of the Samuni family killed during Israel’s ‘Operation Cast Lead’, as UN lead investigator Richard Goldstone arrived to inspect destruction at the Samuni family home in Gaza City on June 3, 2009.
AAPAC – All American Political Action Committee®
WWPAC – Worldwide Political Action Committee™
THE NEVER BEFORE CAMPAIGN
We received this video from The Never Before Campaign based in Beirut, Lebanon. Through its videos, it presents an authentic picture of the horrific conditions that Palestinians must endure under Israeli occupation. Its goal is to reach people all over the world who will speak up and take action to bring peace and justice to the Palestinian people.
Watch their movie GAZA LIVES ON below.
See this dynamic series of movies from Beirut Lebanon from The Never Before Campaign.
Stay with us for future updates on Palestine, Israel, Iraq and the entire Middle East!
MAPPING THE FUTURE OF IRAQ: AUTONOMOUS REGIONS ALLOWED UNDER THE IRAQI CONSTITUTION
As we pointed out in our 2008 PLAN V FOR VICTORY IN IRAQ, the 2005 IRAQ CONSTITUTION provides the option for Provinces to come together to form semi-autonomous REGIONS. The Constitution recognized the existing KURDISTAN REGION as a viable entity, and as such, can sersee thve as a model to emulate.
Kurdistan includes the three Provinces of DAHUK, ARBIL AND SULAYMANIYAH.
The concept of FEDERALISM was incorporated into the political future of Iraq because of the ethno-sectarian violence that was tearing the country apart. The Constitutional writers recognized that the warring factions in Iraq might never reconcile their ethnic, religious and tribal grievances and blood feuds. They provided FEDERALISM as a mechanism to separate these factions to some degree while still maintaining a unified country – the FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF IRAQ.
As we see it in its most basic form, a FEDERAL REPUBLIC would break down into a predominately SUNNI REGION, a SHIA REGION, a MIXED REGION and the existing KURDISTAN. BAGHDAD PROVINCE, with its dense population, could be a REGION in and of itself, with Baghdad City remaining the Iraqi capital.
Why is FEDERALISM so critical right now?
The city of BAGHDAD is the perfect example of why REGIONS must be established, before it is too late.
On Oct. 25, massive suicide car bombs, killing more than 150 and injuring hundreds more, once again shook Baghdad. The Justice Ministry and the Provincial Council Buildings were destroyed as once again, the very heart of the Iraqi government has been targeted. Iraq continues to self-destruct before our eyes!
Until mid-summer, the various factions within the sprawling city were separated by a complicated maze of blast walls and traffic barriers. Al-Malaki started removing these barriers in Aug. as a crass political move to bolster his credentials as the prime minister who brought security to the country.
Shortly afterwards, the latest wave of truck and suicide bombings started up in Baghdad and across the countryside, including the horrific double-truck bombings that destroyed two ministry buildings. Al-Malaki quickly reversed the policy, his reputation seriously damaged as the number of dead and injured dramatically increased.
These latest Oct. bombings will weaken him all the more!
THE GREATER QUESTION THUS BECOMES: As American forces begin to drawn down in earnest, will the ethno-sectarian violence flare up with even greater intensity, laying bare the hollowness of al-Malaki’s security claims?
The terrible bombings that have taken place through Sept. and Oct. indicate to us that Iraq is far from secure, and that the next phase of sectarian civil warfare could already be in motion. The Obama administration must wake up and recognize this terrible possibility as well, and to take actions to head it off.
Two powerful forces are on parallel tracks right now in Iraq: The Jan 2010 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS and the BOMBING AND ASSASSSINATION CAMPAIGN.
Regardless of how the election comes out, and who the next prime minister is, we believe the United States MUST renegotiate the STATUS OF FORCES AGREEMENT so our troops can remain on hand to deal with an emerging civil war.
The next Parliament MUST move quickly forward with the implementation of FEDERALISM once and for all!
With that in mind, we have taken this opportunity to provide a hypothetical map of THE REGIONS OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF IRAQ. These five regions generally correspond to the main concentrations of SUNNI, SHIITE and MIXED POPULATIONS, as well as recognizing KURDISTAN as the de facto KURDISH REGION.
Like KURDISTAN, these theoretical regions would have the right to establish their own government, judiciary and security forces. And like KURDISTAN, they could have their own regional Constitution as long as it didn’t contradict the national Constitution.
This point is especially critical because Iraq already is facing a CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS in the form of the new KURDISTAN CONSTITUTION, which gives Kurdish courts the right to declare Kurdish Law superior to Iraq Law, if a conflict arises,
The Iraqi Constitution allows for the formation of REGIONS, but it does not mandate it! It is a Constitutional choice and option for like-minded Provinces, should they decide to come together.
We not only see the value in REGIONS, we see the absolute necessity of it!
The national government has abdicated its responsibility to implement FEDERALISM and we must call them on it. Two many critical issues have gone unresolved in Iraq for far too long, and FEDERALISM IS AT THE TOP OF THE LIST.
IF this issue is pushed off until after the election, and then ignored by the new parliament and prime minister, and the evolving civil war reaches critical mass, the possible scenarios are all terrible – for Iraq and us as well.
- As chaos once again grips the countryside, a MILITARY COUP could topple the government and a military leader could assume dictatorial powers.
- A civil war could degenerate into general anarchy, like SOMALIA.
- Neighboring countries could send troops across the borders: Saudi Arabia to defend their fellow Sunnis, Iran to defend their fellow Shiites. The entire region could plunge into upheaval, with American forces trapped in the middle.
- KURDISTAN could declare full independence and claim the oil fields around KIRKUK as their own, setting off a conflict with Turkey.
OUR MAP OF REGIONS represents the most realistic chance for avoiding a complete breakdown of Iraqi social order. As the recent cycle of bombings demonstrates, Iraqi society is violent and fragile and unstable. And we can clearly see that the more our military pulls back, the worse it gets. The Success of the Surge is falling apart.
We must FIRST suspend the STATUS OF FORCES AGREEMENT. We must then put all available pressure on the new Iraqi government to move quickly forward with FEDERALISM so these warring factions can separate into secure REGIONS.
OUR MAP OF REGIONS illustrates a peaceful possible future for Iraq.
This map will save Iraq by creating its future, like its glorious past, as the sister city of Babylon that is pictured in the Jan./Feb. 2010 of The National Interest (inside front cover).
With the powerful continued stewardship of Iraq by both America and the UN, we can create Iraq’s new future that will again give it the ancient glory of Baghdad and Babylon.
America and the United Nations must except the continuing partnership and stewardship with and of Iraq for the benefits of their entire population, the harmony of the Middle East – and a model for other countries in the world to follow.
The future belongs to us – but only if we stay together continuously as partners dedicated to the power of human intelligence and cooperation…
Here’s to our mutual success!
SUCCESS AND TRAGEDY IN IRAQ
Iraqi soldiers inspect the site of a car bomb attack in al-Qahira neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq on 8 December 2009. At least 112 were killed and 197 others injured in the wave of blasts that ripped through the Iraqi capital earlier today, police said
THE SUCCESS:
After many weeks of intense sectarian conflict and bitter negotiations, the IRAQI PARLIAMENT has finally approved the long-awaited ELECTION REFORM LAW. These reforms were essential if the 2010 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS were to have any legitimacy.
Without the reforms that have just been incorporated into the new law, the country faced the very real possibility that major ethnigroups would boycott the elections, setting the stage for a renewal of the 2006 civil war.
The elections are now tentatively scheduled for March 6, almost two months behind the original Jan. 12 date. If this schedule does not stand, a CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS will ensue and the current government will automatically dissolve.
The reform law was originally passed in early November, but Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni, vetoed it. He demanded more representation for Sunnis living abroad, which number well over three million. The Kurds in turn demanded more representation for minorities in the disputed Northern Territories around Kirkuk.
The impasse these new demands created lead to intense American and UN involvement to break the deadlock and avoid the Constitutional crisis of a dissolved government.
Without the reform laws, the High Electoral Commission was paralyzed and unable to prepare for the elections. This is not a process that can be rushed to completion, especially without a firm election date to work around.
We know that both President Obama and Vice President Biden got involved by talking directly with Massoud Barzani. The Kurds had two other demands that have been met to their satisfaction – for now.
The Kurds have been pushing for a new census in the Northern Territories – the border regions between Kurdistan and northern Iraq – because they believe it will reflect a greater number of Kurds and Kurdish sympathizers then the 2005 census. They have now been promised a 2010 CENSUS, to be monitored by the UN.
The Kurds will now have 43 seats in Parliament instead of their current 38 seats. The 2010 Parliament will have 325 seats.
And most importantly, Obama and Biden promised the Kurds that the FINAL STATUS OF KIRKUK will be determined in 2010 according to parameters set out in the IRAQI CONSTITUTION.
Our reading of this development is that the FEDERALISM that is offered in the Iraqi Constitution will finally be allowed to play out – that the PROVINCES will be given the opportunity to come together as REGIONS. If this is, in fact, what Obama and Biden have promised the Kurds, then all of our remaining influence will have to be brought into play to force the new government to move forward with FEDERALISM.
The Kurds believe that if given the opportunity under FEDERALISM, Kirkuk Province (At Ta’min Province) will join the existing KURDISTAN REGION, thus giving Kurdistan the complete control over the oil-rich area they have long coveted.
The main obstacle to Federalism has always been the Shia Political Class, because Federalism would dilute the powers of the central government in Baghdad, and Shiites are clearly going to hold onto the majority of Parliamentary seats in the 2010 election, and once again be in a position to appoint the next prime minister. The last thing they are going to do is give up power voluntarily.
We’ve been arguing for years that a SHIA THEOCRACY would attempt to hang onto power, whatever it took.
In this sense, the coming year will be the FINAL SHOWDOWN ON FEDERALISM IN IRAQ. And Obama and Biden must keep their promises and make it happen!
The reform law also calls for OPEN LIST election ballots instead of the CLOSED LIST system that discredited past elections.
THE TRAGEDY
Just as Iraq was celebrating the final approval of the long-awaited Election Reform Law, the country was once again torn apart on Dec. 8th by a series of massive car bombs aimed at government and civilian targets. The new Finance Ministry building was destroyed – the original building having been destroyed in the Aug. 9th attacks. Also targeted in Baghdad was a complex of federal court buildings as well as the Labor Ministry. Beyond Baghdad, a series of roadside bombs were detonated, killing four American soldiers along with many Iraqi civilians and police officers.
Over 110 people have died from these attacks and hundreds more have been wounded.
Will Iraq ever see an end to this kind of horrific violence? Will every step forward in Iraq be answered with three bloody steps backwards?
The targeting of American patrols with roadside bombs has particularly ominous implications. Are we seeing the beginning of a new insurgency, aimed at us once again?
The thousands of SONS OF IRAQ militiamen have long since become disillusioned with us and our failure to force al-Malaki to make good on his promise to hire them into the security services and our civilian jobs. Could these intentional attacks on our patrols represent the next bloody phase of our entanglement in Iraq’s endless cycles of violence?
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?
Sunni terrorists with al-Qaeda connection have claimed responsibility for the Oct. and Dec. bombings with this announcement: “The young men of Islam…set off to target the citadels of evil, the nests of infidelity and the centers of the rejectionist (Shiite) government. We are determined to uproot this government and pull down the pillars and target its points of strength. The list of targets will not end until the banner of one God is once again raised over Baghdad.”
Sadly, this group represents just one aspect of the multi-headed monster that we have come to know as Islamic fundamentalism. All of the militant Jihadi groups that assemble under this banner – the many heads of the monster – have one thing in common: They all are capable and willing to use deplorable violence to express their beliefs and to advance their campaigns of terror, even against their fellow Moslems.
In the case of this group, they are waging a cowardly truck-bomb war against innocent civilians in order to destabilize the Shiite government – their fellow Moslems. During the terrible months of 2005/2006, as ethno-sectarian warfare terrorized Iraqi cities, it was Sunni insurgents exterminating Shiites and Shiite death squads and rogue militias exterminating Sunnis and driving them out of entire communities, creating a refugee crisis that lingers to this day.
Radical Islam is a cancer that will destroy Iraq’s fragile democracy if it is not controlled. There are many failures in Iraq today that have contributed to the horrid success of these bombings. First and foremost is the obvious incompetence and corruption within the security services – the very people who time and again allow these bombers access to their targets.
We know that a number of the security people involved in the Oct. targets have been arrested for accepting bribes and allowing the car bombs through the high-security checkpoints to get right up to their targets.
We also know that the Iraqi security services use a worthless bomb-detecting ‘wand’ at their check points – a piece of junk the Iraqi government paid millions for.
Corruption and incompetence in the Iraqi security establishment have created a deplorable vacuum that allows these terrorists to strike at will. And as their statement says, they intend to continue their bombing campaign.
Six years into this war and occupation, Iraq is still plagued from within by the multi-headed monster of Radical Islam. Reconciliation has failed.
It’s not too late for Obama and Biden to assert our still-considerable influence in Iraq.
Regardless of the Iraqi election results, they must be relentless in making FEDERALISM IN IRAQ a reality. It still represents the most realistic and immediate hope for separating the rival ethno-religious factions in Iraq before they destroy the country from within!
This terrible situation occurred at Baghdad’s major university!!
Here’s the news article:
Iraqi Campus Is Under Gang’s Sway
This article appeared in the October 20, 2009 edition of the New York Times
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS and RIYADH MOHAMMED
Mustansiriya University
BAGHDAD — Mustansiriya University, one of Iraq’s most prestigious universities, was temporarily closed this month by the prime minister in an effort to rid it of a shadowy student gang accused of murdering, torturing and raping fellow students, and killing professors and administrators.
The decision to close the 24,000-student university in northeast Baghdad was made last week after members of the group, the Students League, beat and pistol-whipped Abdullah al-Bayati, 63, an education professor, on campus. The professor and his wife, who also teaches there, have been publicly critical of the group.
Nuri Kamal al-Maliki
To offer incontrovertible evidence to skeptics about the dangers of teaching at Mustansiriya University, Professor Bayati decided to make a point: He went to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s office wearing his bloodied clothes and with untreated gashes on his face and head.
The next day, the prime minister, once a student at Mustansiriya, ordered the university closed one week.
During Iraq’s war, universities like Mustansiriya have not been spared. Since 2007, bombings at the institution have killed or maimed more than 335 students and staff members. Dozens of students and professors have been killed, and a 12-foot-high blast wall has been built around Mustansiriya.
Although Baghdad and most other areas of the country are now generally free of the armed militias that caused much of the violence during Iraq’s sectarian warfare, Mustansiriya seems a remnant of that chaos. It is under the sway of an armed group of violent Shiite students in engineering, literature, law and other disciplines; faculty members; and campus security guards.
Abed Thiab al-Ajili, Iraq’s minister of higher education, and administrators and professors at the university said in interviews that it was commonly believed that violence continued there because of ties between some of the officials in Mr. Maliki’s Shiite party, Dawa, and the Students League through university administrators who shielded the group from prosecution.
“Political parties are causing some of the problems,” said Dr. Ajili, who added that the prime minister had personally interfered with the internal politics of the university in the past. “I’m facing a difficult task dealing with these problems with the parties, but I am fighting.”
Students look at scene of two explosions in front of Mustansiriya University on January 16, 2007.
Ali al-Mousawi, an adviser to Mr. Maliki, denied any ties between the prime minister, who leads the Dawa Party, and the Students League. He said that before Dr. Bayati arrived bloodied last week, there had been insufficient cause to disband the Students League.
“There were suspicions about many student groups, but there was no proof until the case of Dr. Bayati,” he said. “It was a confirmed incident with evidence, so the prime minister made the decision.”
But professors and administrators at the school solemnly give the names of colleagues and students who were threatened by the group before being found dead: Jasim al-Fahaidawi, a professor of Arabic literature, shot dead at the university’s entrance in 2005; Najeb al-Salihi, a psychology professor, kidnapped in 2006 near the campus and found in the morgue three weeks later, shot to death; and Jasim Fiadh al-Shammari, a psychology professor fatally shot near the university, also in 2006.
The Students League, they said, controls campus activities and security, as well as aspects of grading, admissions and even which courses professors teach.
Books covered in blood at the scene of two explosions at Mustansiriya University in 2006
“They have spread an atmosphere of terror at the university,” said one professor, who, like most of the current and former administrators, professors, students and education officials who were interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
The Students League has also asserted control by sharing money with some school administrators through bid-rigging of campus contracts and various other illegal means, said a university administrator whom the group had threatened to kill.
Most of the Shiite-led political parties now dominant in Iraq, including the Dawa Party, once had armed militias. Most of the armed groups have now been formally disbanded.
Mr. Maliki has won a reputation for confronting militias, for example, when he ordered government forces in 2008 to take on the Mahdi Army, the armed wing of the Sadrists, a Shiite group allied with him at the time.
But the prime minister waited to intercede at Mustansiriya University until Oct. 14, the day after he was met at his office by the bloodied Professor Bayati.
Ali al-Dabbagh, Mr. Maliki’s spokesman, said in a statement last week that the college was closed “due to the riotous activity of some gangs and undisciplined people in the university.” The Students League was not mentioned.
The directive included an order to suspend political activity there and to ban all student groups.
A second government statement announced that Baghdad Operations Command, a military entity that reports directly to the prime minister’s office, would begin providing campus security in concert with the university’s security staff, though it intended to stay outside the campus gates.
Before its temporary closing, the university had deteriorated into disorder. Two men claimed to be chancellor: one appointed by the minister of higher education, a second by the deans of Mustansiriya’s colleges. The men had offices in different buildings.
And the Students League acted with near impunity, according to people on campus. In a video shot with a cellphone, league members are shown marching through campus wearing black masks and waving bright yellow flags. Students they believed to be Sunni or Kurdish were harassed and sometimes never seen again, according to current and former students. They are widely feared, even by Shiite students.
A few weeks before Professor Bayati was beaten, his wife, Sana’a al-Tamimi, 58, who teaches educational psychology, publicly denounced the Students League, saying it had come to control the university through violence. She also spoke about the murders and assaults of professors, saying the group had committed “acts of terror.”
Afterward, she said, Students League members came to her campus office and threatened to kill her. They left only after several male professors intervened and pushed a large refrigerator in front of her office door.
Professor Tamimi said that in 2008, shortly after she was named an assistant dean, Students League members came to her office, threatened her and told her to quit. She resigned after just 20 days.
A school administrator said that when a new university chancellor was named this year, the Students League arrived at his office with knives and told him to step down. The chancellor quit a few weeks later, said the administrator, who said he had witnessed the confrontation.
The same administrator, who has received a death threat from the Students League, said the group killed a fellow professor two years ago because he had refused to give in to their demands.
“He was killed at the front gates of the university,” the administrator said.
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
| THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION FOR IRAQ |
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Saving Iraq From Endless Chaos
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With America’s Continued Stewardship
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By Creating an Iraq Federated Republic
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Read our message… See our map!
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America’s Continued Stewardship
With a Bold but Realistic Plan
THE WAR WE CANNOT AFFORD TO LOSE: What Is Going Terribly Wrong in Iraq and Why the United States, with the Help of the United Nations, Must Stay the Course
The final sentence in a new book about Iraq reads as follows: “The events for which the Iraq War will be remembered probably have not yet happened.”
Washington Post writer Thomas Ricks, in his new book on Iraq, THE GAMBLE
THE IRAQ WAR IS FAR FROM OVER! DEMOCRACY IS UNDER ATTACK!
The brutal AUGUST 20th and OCTOBER 25th TRUCK BOMBINGS IN BAGHDAD represent a major escalation in the level of violence that has been increasing all summer in Iraq. The attacks against civilian and security targets have continued on a daily basis since that deadly day. More bombings will come as Iraqis once again try to solve their differences with violence.
We could be witnessing the opening rounds of THE FINAL IRAQ CIVIL WAR. Historians will be brutal with us if we do not move quickly to reassert our POWERFUL INFLUENCE in Iraq, to ward off the forces of self-destruction within the country.
WHY WE STILL MATTER
Nouri al Maliki
Iraq's Prime Minister
The fragile structure of Iraqi democracy is under attack because THE ENEMIES OF DEMOCRACY in Iraq think we have lost the ability and the desire to CONTROL EVENTS because of the SFA. They think we want out at any cost! They are wrong.
WE STILL MATTER BECAUSE WE HAVE NOT LOST OUR WILL TO WIN!
THE BATTLEGROUND IN IRAQ now centers on the January 2010 Parliamentary elections. THE POLITICAL GANGSTERS who are lining up to solidify a PERMANENT SHIA RULING CLASS in Iraq are fighting among themselves at the moment, but they have one thing in common: They all want to stack the deck in the January elections so that a SHIA MAJORITY wins out over any Sunni or minority coalitions, and they can once again appoint a SHIITE PRIME MINISTER to rule the land!
Their most potent weapon to achieve this odious purpose is to deny Iraqi citizens the right to vote for individual candidates — OPEN LISTS. The existing undemocratic and corrupt elections laws only allow for CLOSED PARTY LISTS, which force citizens to vote for BLOCKS of candidates, which are always RELIGIOUS PARTIES.
At GOALS FOR AMERICANS, we opposed the January 2005 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS as a prescription for disaster, and so it turned out. That election was boycotted by Sunnis, and, because of the seriously flawed “CLOSED PARTY LISTS” system, the SHIA THEOCRACY in Baghdad got its start, and al-Maliki became prime minister. We detailed our opposition in PLAN V, and featured no less an authority than former Iraqi Prime Minister AYAD ALLAWI, who also called for a dramatic change in the ELECTORAL LAWS to allow for “OPEN LISTS.”
The 2009 PROVINCIAL ELECTIONS were much more fair and open because we joined with the United Nations to demand “OPEN LISTING.” But Iraq is now backsliding to the old method, which only will serve the POLITICAL GANGSTERS running Baghdad.
Al-Maliki and his SHIA MAJORITY in Parliament have resisted permanent ELECTORAL REFORM since he came into power in 2005!
If nothing is done to dramatically alter this FRAUDULENT ELECTION PROCESS before the January election, democracy in Iraq will die on that very Election Day!
This is why we absolutely need to alter the STATUS OF FORCES AGREEMENT (SFA) so that, America, as well as the United Nations, can stay in Iraq to guide this troubled and mixed-up entity to a decent future for all the people living in what is now called Iraq.
WE STILL MATTER IN IRAQ because we still have the LEVERAGE to force the issue … meaning — we must revise the STATUS OF FORCES AGREEMENT (SFA)! If we don’t, we will deliberately sacrifice all the citizens of Iraq — whom we came to rescue from Saddam Hussein in 2003!
America is a thorn in the side of al-Maliki’s lust for power, and the sooner we lose influence and control, the better for him. It is speculated that al-Maliki will try to put the STATUS OF FORCES REFERENDUM (SFA) on the same January 2010 ballot. If this happens, and a majority of Iraqis reject the SFA, we will be obligated to exit Iraq within a year.
The immediate result of such a rejection will be that our power to control events evaporates. And if such a power vacuum happens, the ENEMIES OF DEMOCRACY in Iraq will most likely stumble into a full-scale civil war in short order. WE MUST STOP THIS NOW!
Al-MALIKI HOPES TO STOKE THE IRRATIONAL EMOTIONS OF NATIONALISM TO DEFEAT THE STATUS OF FORCES AGREEMENT(SFA) AND FORCE US OUT SOONER.
THIS WOULD AMOUNT TO THE GRAVEST OF ALL INSULTS TO ALL OF THE BRAVE AND GENEROUS-HEARTED AMERICAN MEN AND WOMEN WHO WORKED, FOUGHT, AND DIED OR WERE INJURED IN THE SERVICE OF A FREE IRAQ. AL-MALIKI MUST BE STOPPED!
WE STILL MATTER because we have TWO OPTIONS — AND WE MUST USE BOTH! We can NULLIFY the STATUS OF FORCES AGREEMENT (SFA) ourselves, or we can PREVENT THE REFERENDUM from being added to the January 2010 ballot.
Either way, WE MUST REMAIN IN IRAQ well beyond the JANUARY 2010 ELECTIONS — UNTIL THE JOB IS DONE.
The 2009 SUMMER OF VIOLENCE in Iraq has seriously undermined al-Maliki’s and all other power groups’ claim to power by undermining their blustery claims that Iraq has become a peaceful country under his leadership. The powerful SUPREME IRAQI ISLAMIC COUNCIL is now forming a SHIA COALITION to challenge his DAWA PARTY in January. This represents a train wreck within the SHIA COMMUNITY that does not bode well for a peaceful election season. Al-Maliki will do anything to insure his appointment again as prime minister in January. Shia-against-Shia violence is certain to begin.
We — America and the United Nations — want a Trustee or a Stewardship understanding or relationship set up for the benefit of all the citizens of Iraq. We present this solution with the new Iraq Federated Republic shown here.
WE STILL MATTER because we are all that stands between ORDER and CHAOS in Iraq. The rational, secular and truly democratic forces in Iraq understand this, and they are terrified at the prospect that we will be forced to exit in 2010, if the  |
We still provide massive amounts of funding to Iraq, and we can TURN IT OFF! |
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WE COULD shut down the substantial flow of RECONSTRUCTION FUNDS. |
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WE COULD withdraw all of our RECONSTRUCTION WORKERS AND ADVISORS. |
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WE COULD shut off the flow of weapons, ammunition and logistical support to their military and security services. |
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WE COULD suspend all joint urban military operations with their security services. |
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WE COULD suspend all training and tactical support for the security services. |
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WE COULD withdraw from the dangerous northern border region. |
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WE COULD recognize KURDISTAN’S NEW CONSTITUTION. |
HERE’S HOW:
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WE STILL MATTER because this war is not over, we still have 130,000 troops in Iraq, we still finance a great deal of what happens, the Iraqi security services are incapable of keeping the peace without us, Kurdistan remains calm as long as we’re in the picture, and the international community recognizes the legitimacy of Iraq only as long as we’re involved. |
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And WE STILL MATTER because America does not run from its responsibilities. |
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WE WILL HONOR our courageous men and women in uniform by getting this job done, no matter how long it takes, no matter how long we must remain in Iraq! |
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WE’RE IN THIS FOR THE LONG HAUL! The United Nations MUST BE OUR PARTNER! |
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IRAQ IS THE WAR WE CANNOT AND WILL NOT LOSE! |
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And now! …Finally the Right Solution…
an entirely new concept to save the present failed structure of Iraq…
Read on for the ultimate governmental solution for the future of Iraq!
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And NOW President Obama Must Make this Happen! |
FINALLY THE RIGHT SOLUTION:
THE IRAQ FEDERATED REPUBLIC
At GOALS FOR AMERICANS, we have argued forcefully and passionately for the FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF IRAQ. We provided the historical perspective and current realities in Iraq to justify our vision called PLAN V For Peace and Victory In Iraq, which we issued in Jan. 2008.
The continuing horror of terrorist bombings
This was our cautiously optimistic opinion back then! It is still our opinion today!
WE ARE NOW ADVOCATING THE PEACEFUL DIVISION OF IRAQ INTO FIVE INDEPENDENT REGIONS OR PROVINCES – NORTHERN, WESTERN, CENTRAL, SOUTHERN, AND CAPITAL REGIONS – TO COME TOGETHER IN THEIR CAPITAL CITY OF BAGHDAD!
The sobering reality of the indisputable and incompatible differences between these factions in Iraq has forced us to come to a new conclusion. While most of America turns away from Iraq and concentrates on Afghanistan, we have held our attention on this unfinished war, and what we see and understand about Iraq this summer does not bode well for a sustainable peaceful outcome – Unless we make this change and America and the U.N. can become the overriding Stewards of Iraq… to work in concert with Iraq’s own parliament.
The very problems that now threaten to blow Iraq apart at the seams are the very same unresolved problems we outlined in detail in PLAN V. Let us not delude ourselves or the citizens of Iraq any longer.
Like a gathering storm, these problems will overwhelm Iraq and plunge it back into sectarian, ethnic and tribal chaos if drastic changes are not made.
THE ESSENTIAL UNRESOLVED PROBLEMS WE ALL RECOGNIZE – THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAILURE
#1 THE FAILURE OF ELECTORAL REFORM:
The purple finger of an Iraqi voter
A secular democratic country cannot survive when elections are buried under the suffocating weight of religious affiliations. After two major flawed elections, Iraq still refuses to embrace the concept of THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE, or even the concept of THE SEPARATION OF TRIBE AND STATE.
A SHIA THEOCRACY is beginning to form in Baghdad and that will kill forever whatever semblance of democracy Iraq still has.
The al-Makaki government recently asked Parliament to legalize drastic new censorship laws. What more proof do we need?
#2 THE FAILURE OF RECONCILIATION:
After six chaotic and deadly years of ethno-sectarian violence, Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds still put their tribal and religious loyalties above the good of the country. A lasting unity of purpose and identity within any population is impossible under these circumstances. Iraq is failing itself!
Lee Hamilton
Former Representative from Indiana and key member of the Iraq Study Group
As former U.S. Representative Lee Hamilton so correctly put it in PLAN V : “If the Iraqis do not reconcile, all the troops in the world will not provide security
In the West, we continuously fail to understand the concept of religious vengeance and tribal grievances and what powerful and destructive forces they can be within a society – especially a society that has been traumatized by a brutal dictator who played ethnic factions against one another. We fail to understand that in the Middle East, angry memories and blood grievances last forever, The obsession for tribal or religious revenge is a passion that never dies.
The blood feud between the Shia and the Sunnis goes all the back to the treacherous days after WW1 when England and France forced their will on the provinces of the defeated Ottoman Empire in Mesopotamia and created the artificial country we call Iraq. So, too, does the animosity between non-Arab Kurds in the northern mountain provinces and the secular Arabs in the south, Sunnis and Shiites. Iraq was pasted together from the ashes of the defeated Ottoman Empire. It has never been a legitimate country.
This misbegotten creation of a country never developed a true identity throughout the 20th century. It’s varied religious and ethnic populations never came together as Iraqis – as equal citizens under one flag with a common unifying loyalty.
Our great conceit was in thinking we could ignore this history of perpetual antagonisms and hostilities between Iraq’s competing factions and simply invade the country and create a functioning democracy in short order. Our ignorance of the history of these people blinded us to the impossibility of our ambitions for Iraq.
A MIRACLE OF RECONCILATION IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN IN IRAQ NO MATTER HOW MUCH WE WISH IT TO BE!
Bringing down the statue of Saddam
Vice President Dick Cheney, in his “infinite oversight”, told us before the invasion began that we would be greeted as liberators. Instead of that outcome, Shiites and Sunnis alike launched insurgencies against our military forces and attacked and killed many of our civilian reconstruction workers. They blew up the UN headquarters in Baghdad, killing Sergio de Mello, the top UN envoy in Iraq, along with many other dedicated UN diplomats. This bombing in the early months of our occupation was a cowardly act that foreshadowed the carnage and violence of the years to come.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz told us that Iraqi oil would pay for the war and reconstruction. Instead of that outcome, we have already spent almost 700 billion dollars on the war and occupation with no end in sight.
After the invasion, when resistance against our forces continued, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told us that it was just the work of a few “dead-enders.” Instead of that outcome, a lethal insurgency killed almost 4500 of our soldiers and seriously injured many thousands more over the past six years. They attacked the Green Zone with rockets, shot down our military helicopters, terrorized the roads with IEDs, and brutalized their fellow citizens.
And finally, there was the ultimate demonstration of ignorance and arrogance, as President Bush stood on the aircraft carrier deck in front of a huge banner that read “Mission Accomplished.”
Instead of that outcome, we sank deeper and deeper into the quicksand pit of Iraq, battling a lethal insurgency while Iraqis went about the terrible business of killing one another. Bush left office six years later, handing his “Unaccomplished War” over to President Obama. Bush handed over a war without end!
THE FAILURE TO CREATE OIL LAWS – JUSTICE DENIED!
The central government has had six years to insure that the revenue from Iraq’s great oil wealth will be distributed evenly and honorably among all the citizens, not just those who control the Oil Ministry or surround the oil and natural gas fields. They have failed to do so.
Members of the Kurdish parliament read a draft of the proposed Constitution which claims disputed natural resources in Erbil on June 24, 2009.
Nouri al Maliki
Iraq's Prime Minister
This demonstrates to us that the Iraqi government is incapable and unwilling to do what’s best for the whole country. The Kurds are doing what’s best for them while al-Malaki is trying to solidify his Shia dominance by negotiating oil exploration contracts by fiat.
The Iraqi Parliament has demonstrated neither the guts nor the vision to legislate OIL REVENUE SHARING LAWS. Iraq will never move in the direction of lasting unity without a fair and honest distribution of the oil and gas wealth.
Their failure to do this will doom the naive notion of Iraqi unity!
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INDEPENDENCE… |
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AND THEN AN IRAQ FEDERATED REPUBLIC! |
At GOALS FOR AMERICANS, we have come to the conclusion that the religious and ethnic makeup of Iraq is too fractured and too mired in ancient tribal hostilities to ever hold together on its own.
We have concluded that it is in the best interests of everyone that Iraq be peacefully divided into FIVE SEPARATE REGIONS (OR STATES) that reflect the five most harmonious groupings of the various populations and resources in Iraq. The borders of these regions (states) of course follow the various boundaries of the existing 18 provinces divided, also, with regard to resources and historical considerations.
WE HAVE ALREADY DONE THIS IN OUR PLAN V !
The Iraqis can not be trusted to work together for the common good of all their citizens!
THE BAGHDAD BOMBINGS ON AUG 20 SHOULD BE OUR WAKE UP CALL. TIME IS RUNNING SHORT. IT IS TIME TO WORK TOWARDS THE PEACEFUL ARRANGEMENT OF IRAQ INTO FIVE REGIONS, EACH ONE MADE UP OF EXISTING PROVINCES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE IRAQ CONSTITUTION.
OBAMA MUST support this promissing concept that can definitely create the much needed democratic arrangement of its existing 18 provinces into a most harmoneous grouping of States for the new Republic.
AMERICA & UNITED NATIONS MUST BECOME STEWARDS OF THE NEW IRAQ FEDERATED REPUBLIC UNTIL THEY CAN STAND ALONE!
IT IS THEIR ONLY HOPE — IT IS THEIR VERY BEST OPTION!
WHERE WE NOW STAND IN IRAQ!
The most dangerous aspect of the Iraq war is that the American public is not paying attention, and when the public loses interest, so does our leader.
Jalal Talabani
President of Iraq and founder of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)
THIS WAR IS NOT OVER! When Vice President Joe Biden was recently in Iraq, meeting with top Iraqi and Kurdish representatives, rockets and mortar shells landed in the fortified Green Zone two days in a row, killing and injuring civilians.
Is anybody paying attention?
At GOALS FOR AMERICANS, we’ve been doing more than just paying attention. We’ve been offering thoughtful and bold advice since the beginning of this misbegotten War, and we are continuing that tradition with these ideas.
We have to stop deluding ourselves! Many of our fellow citizens think we can simply pull up stakes and get out of Iraq because the so-called “Surge” dramatically lowered the number of American casualties – a wonderful outcome we all celebrated.
Tariq al-Hashimi, one of Iraq's two
Vice Presidents and a top Sunni leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party
A substantial drop in American casualties is one thing, but sustainable peace and prosperity in Iraq is an entirely different matter.
While Americans turn away from Iraq, Iraq smolders.
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►We appealed to Bush not to attack in 2003!
►We promoted an Iraq Federated Republic Idea in 2006!
►We developed Plan V. and sent it to the Bush Whitehouse and all of Congress in 2008!
None of this was implemented by the past administration!
Our new Administration with President Obama and VP Biden at the lead must now DO SOMETHING!
HERE’S THE PLAN–
THIS WAR IS NOT OVER!
At GOALS FOR AMERICANS, we are sounding the alarm; our commitment in Iraq is far from over. Democracy in Iraq is being strangled to death by primitive tribalism and religious extremism.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani
#1 Shiite Cleric
The most influential religious figure in Iraq today
We are now calling for The Iraq Federated Republic, including five provinces or regions–made by appropriate arrangement of their 18 provinces.
The rocket fire that landed less than a mile from Vice President Biden is all the proof we need! Six years after the war and occupation began, our people are still in mortal danger in Iraq, even within the walls of the most secure area in the entire country.
This demonstrates to us that victory in Iraq is still a dangerous mirage.
Moqtada al-Sadr, Shiite Cleric
Leader of the Mahdi Army
The Obama administration MUST support General Odierno to the hilt and reclaim the high ground and move forcefully to alter events in Iraq while we still have leverage.
If we stand back and watch Iraq self-destruct, then we will be as much to blame as the Iraqis themselves.
If we let Iraq slide into civil war, all of our terrible losses will have been in vain, as well as the loss of so many brave Iraqis who joined us in heart and spirit.
Prime Minister Maliki,
our partner for success and the future
For Maliki’s sake and for his support we must initiate and create the new Iraq Federated Republic.
Stay with us |
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Both you and we owe it to our country
to make this happen |
Now look at the muddled
history of the Middle East
The Chaotic History of the Middle East
After you watch the following animation, you will see that Iraq never was a country until it was cobbled together by Europeans (as were the other Middle Eastern countries) in 1920 after World War I. The history of the Middle East includes conquest after conquest as different dictatorships took over the rule of Middle Eastern countries. Just to name a few, the conquering Empires include the Kingdom of Egypt in 3000 BC, the Persian Empire in 336 BC, the Roman Empire in 565 AD, the Crusades in 1187 AD, the Mongolian Empire in 1700 AD, the Ottoman Empire in 1912, and the European Colonialism that made the geographical mistakes in 1920. Now, in 2009, the United States and its allies are in their 6th year of war to force a multi-faceted set of Middle Eastern cultures into one country with Western ideals. It is as absurd as if some Middle Eastern government came over to North America and demanded that Canada, Mexico, and the United States become one big country just to simplify the drawing of maps.
We wish to thank Maps of War for their wonderful animation on the constantly changing empires of the Middle East.
ANNOUNCING
In July, Goals for Americans launched its Idea Center website to create an information hub and forum for new and innovative ideas. We’ll discuss world affairs, the environment, and topics that will ultimately shape the future. |
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