Thursday, May 03, 2007

Green Zone Turns Red

Four people died on Wednesday, as for the third day in a row, insurgent rockets exploded inside Baghdad's "Green Zone", the specially fortified area that holds both the American authorities and the protege Iraq Government.

Red blood has spilled in the Green Zone. And not for the first time. In March, two people were killed in a rocket attack. Less than a week later two suicide vests were found, smuggled into the zone. On April 12th, in the Iraqi parliament cafeteria, a suicide bomber killed eight.

Is the Green Zone under seige? Says the Philippine Information Agency regarding Wednesday's killings,
"Three days of continuous mortar and rocket fire into the heavily fortified Green Zone in Iraq finally had one rocket streaming into the zone and found Idulsa and three other foreign nationals in the open."
Sounds like a siege. Or maybe somebody is boiling a frog?

Meanwhile, the Iraq Parliament still hasn't passed that darned oil bill that would give their oil resources to the big oil companies to develop. The Kurds pulled out of the plan at the end of April, as the text had been changed. The Sunnis don't like it, either. The Shiites cannot pass it all by themselves.

The Parliament is planning a long summer recess, infuriating the U.S. Congress, which should be more understanding, since it takes its own summer recess. If rockets continue to land in the Green Zone, Parliament may adjourn sooner.

One Republican candidate - Governor Tommy Thompson - proposed at the Republican Debate last night that the Iraq oil money be split three ways, with one third going to the national government, one third to the provinces, and one third to each and every citizen. If we had only done this four years ago, where might we be today!

Secretary of State Condi Rice is for the first time talking to Iraq's neighboring states at a conference in Egypt, discussing their involvement in the future of Iraq. After we leave, perhaps.

Senators Hillary Clinton and Robert Byrd have announced that they will be introducing a bill to revoke Mr. Bush's war powers, to take effect in October, 2007. Mrs. Clinton has been criticized for voting to enable Bush's war - now she's making up for lost time.

And the Justice Department is coming apart at the seams. Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson were given the power to hire and fire US Attorneys - and took instructions from the White House. Hires were limited to Republicans. Monica broke the law.

Stay tuned.

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