Posted on 01/21/2010 6:22:10 AM PST by Libloather
Biden Heading To Baghdad Amid Election Tensions
by The Associated Press
January 20, 2010
An upcoming election intended to ease Iraq's sectarian rifts is instead dredging up old hostilities — with the White House sending Vice President Joe Biden to smooth tensions between the Shiites who hold power and the Sunnis who want a greater slice of it.
Some Sunni leaders have been outraged by the Shiite-led government's political blacklist against perceived backers of Saddam Hussein's Sunni regime, and by officials in a Shiite holy city vowing to banish any Saddam loyalists before the balloting for parliament in six weeks.
The growing quarrels have pulled Washington back into power plays between the majority Shiites and the Sunnis who seek to regain a stronger political voice in the March 7 elections, which U.S. officials hope could be a milestone for reconciliation and clear the Pentagon to accelerate troop withdrawals.
Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, said Biden will visit Iraq to press the government to suspend efforts to block suspected members of Saddam's Baath Party from public jobs until after the voting. But Talabani told the Al-Mustaqbal satellite TV channel that it's unclear whether Iraq would agree, saying the government will "move according to Iraqi interests."
Talabani did not say when Biden was scheduled to arrive, but some Arab media reported it could be as early as Thursday. There was no immediate comment from the White House.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Can you say “Throwing Gasoline on the Fire”?
Who will the Chitcogo thug put in his place? Nazi Pelosi or Rahm?
I hope someone is going to video tape all of this.
The image of ‘Biden the statesman’ is almost as funny as ‘Gore the scientist’. These guys live in a eerie little fantasy world of convaluted reasoning and bizarre reality. Without the MSM to market them to idiots the whole world would be laughing.
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