Quotes of the Morning: A Shining Beacon

“The Prime Minister is a great Iraqi patriot, he's a friend of liberty, he's a strong partner for peace and freedom.
[…]
I appreciate Prime Minister Jaafari's brave leadership. Prime Minister Jaafari is a bold man. I've enjoyed my discussions with the Prime Minister. He is a frank, open fellow who is willing to tell me what's on his mind. And what is on his mind is peace and security for the people of Iraq, and what is on his mind is a democratic future that is hopeful.
I want to thank you for your courage. I want to thank you for your understanding about the nature of free societies. I want to thank you for helping Iraq become a beacon of freedom.”
-George ‘Dubya’ Bush, June 24, 2005

“Our good friend Prime Minister Jaafari! Helping us make Iraq a shining beacon of freedom..”
-Skippy

“Iraq's security minister, a Shi'ite political ally of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, accused U.S. and Iraqi troops on Monday of killing 37 unarmed people in an attack on a mosque complex a day earlier.”
-Reuters, March 27, 2006

"’The Alliance calls for a rapid restoration of (control of) security matters to the Iraqi government,’ Jawad al-Maliki, a senior spokesman of the Shi'ite Islamist Alliance and ally of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, told a news conference.
The United States handed over formal sovereignty in 2004 but 133,000 troops in the country give it the main say in security.”
-Reuters, March 27, 2006

“What? Prime Minister Jaafari’s people want us out of Iraq just because of one little accidental slaughter in a mosque? Well we know what to do with our little puppets when they quit playing by our rules..”
-Skippy

“The ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, told the head of the main Shiite political bloc at a meeting last Saturday to pass a ‘personal message from President Bush’ on to the prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who the Shiites insist should stay in his post for four more years, said Redha Jowad Taki, a Shiite politician and member of Parliament who was at the meeting.
Ambassador Khalilzad said that President Bush ‘doesn't want, doesn't support, doesn't accept’ Mr. Jaafari to be the next prime minister, according to Mr. Taki, a senior aide to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Shiite bloc. It was the first ‘clear and direct message’ from the Americans on the issue of the candidate for prime minister, Mr. Taki said.”
-New York Times, March 28, 2006

“Hate the game, but not the playa. It isn’t our fault that we need to blatantly manipulate the internal politics of the ‘sovereign’ nation of Iraq. These people shouldn’t take this kind of thing so seriously.”
-Skippy

“The Badr Organization, a political party that represents the paramilitary Badr Corps, the Shiite militia of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, demanded Monday that Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Iraq, be expelled from that country.”
-Juan Cole, March 29, 2006

“Zalmay though isn’t going to let a little thing like that drive him out. Hey, sometimes you have to get a little rough. You can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs, and you can’t make a country without accidentally slaughtering a few tens of thousands of people. Politics are good.. but if that doesn’t work, well.. Zalmay has some other options.”
-Skippy

“American and Iraqi troops mounted two raids in Baghdad yesterday arresting more than 40 interior ministry guards at a secret prison and killing around 20 gunmen in an assault on a mosque loyal to the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The sudden strikes seemed to put muscle behind a strong warning from the US ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, on Saturday that militias must be brought under control. They had become a bigger threat to Iraq than the insurgency, he said.”
-The Guardian, March 27, 2006

“Oh yeah.. that’s the assault that started this thing off in the first place.. My bad.”
-Skippy