The message is loud and clear

The message is loud and clear - leave!

OK, the Coalition of the Willing went into Iraq topple Saddam and bring democracy to the country, right? And George Bush, Tony Blair and little echo John Howard all bang on how democractic things have become in Iraq. Look, they have had elections and a functioning Parliament! It's all rather illusory, of course, and it seems it's all OK so long as it accords with what the invading forces want.

AlterNet reveals what has evidently not been reported in the USA - or Australia for that matter:

"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)."

So, the voice of the people has spoken! Now what? Probably nothing, as the whole thing will be ignored by the Coalition. One has to wonder whether the current previously unannounced trip of Dick Cheney to Baghdad might have had something to do with that vote.

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