She added, ?These kinds of illegal activities are in addition to siphoning the KRG budget to his personal bank accounts?.
Daily, she says, ?The comedy goes on.?
?The National Assembly wanted to sack members who do not come to work,and by the way, it only meets three times per week. But there were toofew to vote. There are 275 members, and only 145 showed up. And thatwas on a good day. When the constitution was presented, fewer than 100were there. And, more astonishingly, the government itself was votedin with less than 50 percent of the assembly voting yes, because lessthan 50 percent attended the session.?
She cites a Reuters news item, which she says ?gives a flavor of the irony of this so-called democracy?:
>From Reuters: ?Iraq?s parliament proposed a law on Monday to sackmembers of the National Assembly who repeatedly failed to turn up forwork — but the decision was put on hold because too many were absentto hold a vote. The Chamber voted 74 in favor and 71 against thelegislation, but deputy speaker Hussein al-Shahristani decided to putproceedings on hold because those opposed said the absentees had aright to vote.?
She continued: ?The government should have dissolved due to lack ofagreement on the constitution. But, they casually changed the law, ina completely illegal move. On the night of August 15, just an hour orso before midnight, the deadline, someone moved to amend theTransitional Authority Law (TAL) and change the deadline for theconstitution?.
The TAL, she explains, ?states clearly that any amendment has to beproposed two days in advance of a vote, it has to be gazetted and allthe rest. These guys did it in five minutes. Okay, let’s change thelaw, who cares. None will notice, because everyone is worried aboutelectricity and water. They were right, none noticed?.
?It ain’t lookin’ good,? she concludes. ?The ?insurgency? is altered. Until recently, the US forces and Iraqi security units were thelightening rods for insurgents. We all knew that if we stayed away from checkpoints and convoys we could move about safely, in a limited and low-profile way of course. Now it is changed. The insurgency can hardly be called an insurgency, rather it looks more like expanded gang warfare. Our guys in Baghdad hear bombs and gunfire, they look for the convoy or police, and all they see are masked groups going at each other. Rival militias or groups of disgruntled men walk the streets with AKs and RPGs ready to shoot anyone who gets in the way.?
The constitution, the Bush Administration?s solution to divisions inthe country, ?has accomplished the opposite of its intended purpose,?she claims. ?The cracks of anxiety each group had with another are nowchasms of anger. Today in Iraq, Shiites fight Sunnis and otherShiites, Kurds fight Sunnis, Turkomen and other Kurds, and Sunnis fightamongst themselves and everybody else.?
She adds, ?And then on top of all this is Al-Qaeda. In other words, wecannot figure out who is against whom anymore. The lines are blurredand the country is in chaos.?
The Bush team, she says, ?is grasping for good news as its house ofcards falls down. Another good one from the other day was apropagandist general declaring that the release of 1000 prisoners fromAbu Ghraib was yet another step towards democracy. What??
She concludes: ?I am still in the thick of the most interesting and unfortunately the saddest story since Vietnam.?
