The Iraqi Out of Iraq Caucus

I remember hearing that we are in Iraq at the request of the Iraqi government. Someone ought to tell that to the Iraqis.

On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq's parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement, the nationalist Shia group that sponsored the petition.

It's a hugely significant development. Lawmakers demanding an end to the occupation now have the upper hand in the Iraqi legislature for the first time; previous attempts at a similar resolution fell just short of the 138 votes needed to pass (there are 275 members of the Iraqi parliament, but many have fled the country's civil conflict, and at times it's been difficult to arrive at a quorum).

Reached by phone in Baghdad on Tuesday, Al-Rubaie said that he would present the petition, which is nonbinding, to the speaker of the Iraqi parliament and demand that a binding measure be put to a vote. Under Iraqi law, the speaker must present a resolution that's called for by a majority of lawmakers, but there are significant loopholes and what will happen next is unclear.

Given this, the debate in this country over benchmarks and timelines and withdrawals is almost completely irrelevant. The Iraqis don't want us in Iraq. We are refusing to leave, and that would be an ilegal occupation in a sovereign nation. As much as we'd like to, we don't own the Iraqi government. They're going to pass their own laws and go on their own vacation. If we believe in anything about Iraq, it's that democracy should be allowed to flourish in that country. Well, it's flourishing, all right. The bottom line is that US troops are illegally occupying the nation of Iraq. Congress has an opportunity to end that occupation.

By the way, you have to wear flak jackets in the Green Zone these days, inclluding INDOORS. We're greeted as liberators!

UPDATE: Look at that, Commander Guy wants benchmarks! Of course, his idea is benchmarks is that you tell the Iraqi government concrete steps they need to make, and if they don't reach them we shrug our shoulders and go "What can you do?" Benchmarks as defined by Bush are meaningless.