Iraq ambassador Khalilzad to quit.
By on Nov 6th, 2006 at 11:45 am
Iraq ambassador Khalilzad to quit.
The AP reports, “Zalmay Khalilzad, the plainspoken dealmaker and Republican insider who has won praise and criticism for attempts to broker Sunni political participation in Iraq’s fragile government, is likely to quit his post as U.S. ambassador in Baghdad in the coming months, a senior Bush administration official said Monday.”
View Most Popular
Advertisement
What We're About
What We're Fighting For
What We're Fighting Against
Featured
Subscribe to the Progress Report
Topic CloudView topics sorted by popularity
Afghanistan
Bachmann
Beck
Boehner
Business
Cheney
Civil Rights
Congress
Corporate Ethics
Dobbs
Economy
Education
Election
Energy
Environment
Ethics
Fox News
Gingrich
Glenn Beck
Global Warming
Health Care
Immigration
International Relations
Justice
LGBT
Lieberman
Limbaugh
Media
Military
O'Reilly
Obama
Palin
Pelosi
Politics
Race
Radical Right
Religion
Sports
Steele
Stimulus
Tea Parties
Tea Party
Terrorism
Veterans
Women's Rights
Visit Our Affiliated Sites
Reports
In-depth studies on select topics
Got a hot tip?
Have a hot news tip? We'd love to hear from you. Use the form below to send us the latest.
ArchivesBlog Roll
Uhhh….mission accomplished?
November 6th, 2006 at 11:50 amslowly he stepped off the sinking ship,and quietly backed out…
November 6th, 2006 at 11:52 amIts all good, it is going swimmingly
Turblossoms like Happy Guy say so.
November 6th, 2006 at 11:54 amWhy? Any guesses.? Hmmmm…
November 6th, 2006 at 11:55 amThe party is way over with.
November 6th, 2006 at 11:55 amIs he goping to be the next Sec. of Defense, after Rumsfeld quits?
November 6th, 2006 at 11:55 amWhatever he needs to be sent to prison and hanged with Saddam! He is a Bush stooge, so screw him!
November 6th, 2006 at 11:56 amI trust his off-shore bank accounts are in order!
November 6th, 2006 at 12:00 pmAnother corner turned. Last throes, if you will.
November 6th, 2006 at 12:02 pmHe can leave now because things are going swimmingly.
November 6th, 2006 at 12:09 pmHe probably just grew tired of all the free leftover flowers and chocolates from the liberation.
November 6th, 2006 at 12:14 pmFreedom Is On The March…the hell out of Iraq.
November 6th, 2006 at 12:21 pm“quit”? …riiiiiight…
November 6th, 2006 at 12:22 pmThis is good news for Republicans and bad news for John Kerry. Why? I’m not sure. I just know it is true.
November 6th, 2006 at 12:33 pmCut and run.
November 6th, 2006 at 12:34 pmMy unprofessional impression is that Khalilzad is about as competent a bureaucrat as this administration can produce, light years more gifted than Presidential Medal of Freedom winner L. Paul Bremer. I would rue his departure if I thought his staying would make any difference.
November 6th, 2006 at 12:41 pmI hereby appoint One-auld Rumpsfelt as the next ambassador to Iraq.
November 6th, 2006 at 12:52 pm[...] Perhaps it’s because six weeks ago he said Maliki had a two month window. His Khalilzad is almost up. [...]
November 6th, 2006 at 1:04 pmLet’s not forget that the sinking ship is inhabited by millions of people (26 million and falling) who are innocent of the false assertions sold to the “intelligentsia” of america as the basis for your heinous invasion and whose only “crime” was to be born.
Although watching your government and its agents stumble, bumble, and fall is amusing from a watching-the-train-wreck perspective, I believe that the current dialogue and focus needs to be on setting things straight and helping (not directing) the Iraqi people to regain control of their lives and not be in fear of the intimidators, thugs, and criminals that you place in a nice clean package and call your military. (sure, your service members are just following orders but that does not absolve them of responsibility for their actions, just like you are not absolved for sending them)
I see americans standing at a fork in the road. One path is that of prosperity and compassion, the other is of deceit and destruction. It is my sincerest hope that the correct path be chosen and embarked upon. Let the naysayers and deceivers go their own way. Show the world that you are worthy of the honor that you so oft, and inappropriately, wield like a bloody and gnarly club.
It is time to stop “imagining” and to start “doing†because, after all, actions are the only reality. Words, as you all can serve witness, are often cheap and manipulative.
May peace be with us all.
November 6th, 2006 at 1:16 pmthe plainspoken dealmaker and Republican insider
why do they never mention his ties to radical, extremist groups, e.g., ‘member of the project for a new american century’???
i think his leaving, and the vanity fair piece, have some sort of connection…
this may be a collective throwing bush under the bus in order to ‘regroup’ and decide who to ‘create’ for 2008?? kristol has been looking a bit green around the gills lately as well…he predicts dems take the house 243-102 and the senate 52-48.
November 6th, 2006 at 1:36 pmsort of off topic, but skippy found a powerful, albeit disturbing youtube video about the war: psycho killer.
.
.
November 6th, 2006 at 3:38 pmI guess he coundn’t stay the course.
November 6th, 2006 at 3:50 pmMr Khalilzad has no choice but to quit given the arising of the power of the Iraqi Shiite fundamentalists who have been striving to transform a secular Iraq (under Saddam Hussein) into Shiite fundamentalist republic for over twenty years
There is nothing the US can do to beat back twenty plus years of momentum.
It is not as if the Al Dawa, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution of Iraq, et al have not been in place waiting for these very days for the past two decades.
To think otherwise is sheer folly.
The US has lost and is screwed in Iraq.
Bush surrenders Iraq to Maliki’s death squads
by Ahmed Amr
When the time eventually comes to make historic documentaries about the Iraq war, there is one scene that will leave no doubt about the dark and sinister nature of George W. Bush. The timing is a week before mid-term elections. Along with his senior aides, the president is holding a videoconference with Nouri Al-Maliki – the Prime Minister of Iraq. After an extraordinary public feud, the two men kiss and make up in front of the cameras. But both walk away from the encounter – which was initiated at the request of Maliki – with the understanding that the United States will abandon efforts to tackle the death squads in Iraq.
[snip]
But Maliki didn’t stop there. He demanded more American funding and accelerated training of the very same Iraqi security forces that moonlight as death squads. And, of course, Bush had no other option but to comply with the absurd request to provide American tax dollars to further enhance the criminal capabilities of the militia infested police and army.
[snip]
From the earliest days of the American occupation, rumors began to emerge that operatives recruited from the ranks of the Badr Brigades were systematically infiltrating Iraqi Security Forces. For those who haven’t being paying attention, Badr is an Iraqi Shia militia that was trained in exile by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. It is the armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) – a political creature that was established and financed by the theocratic regime in Tehran. Aside from SCIRI operatives, the Iraqi Security Forces recruited militia members from Moqtada Sadr’s Mahdi Army and militants from Maliki’s Dawa party.
November 6th, 2006 at 3:53 pmHere’s a clip from Amy Goodman’s interview with Larry Everest on the “ambassador”
‘his nomination as ambassador to Iraq really tells us two things. First, that the US, despite the resistance, despite the upheaval, the US remains bent on reshaping Iraq to serve its interests, not Iraqi interests… Also, that creating this pro-US regime, a pro-US neo-colony, really, in Iraq remains central to broader US objectives in the region, and in the world, including restructuring the Middle East, opening it up to greater US investment, gaining greater control over world energy supplies,…’
November 6th, 2006 at 3:55 pmRUC,
how true… anyone reading the pnac document in 1999 and seeing the ‘funny name’ as a signature, knew that this extremist was going to be part of the iraqi occupation team…
i just wonder, as i stated above, whether this retreat by the pnac cabal away from bush signals the throwing under the bus of bush and a regrouping to pick the next neocon puppet in 2008… i know maccaca was going to be the golden child, and, he still may end up being the candidate.
November 6th, 2006 at 4:10 pmThe writing was on the wall when Dracula Negroponte showed up over their last week….
November 6th, 2006 at 4:21 pm#24, US remains bent on reshaping Iraq
Neocons vs Armed Forces
I think that it is certain that what the Neocons want and what many in the armed forces want are two totally different things.
How so?
For a long time, with Ledeen at the front, the Butch admin was using the Iraq model to con Americans into another pre-emptive against Iran.
That pre-emptive strike did not occur.
Why?
Look at the steady stream of leaked documents which have totally undermined each stage of their proposal to strike Iran.
Look at the steady stream of leaked documents which have totally undermined each rosy assessment.
The timing of these leaks was not random: The US military has had enough.
Plus, it is no secret at that among ME academics and professionals that what is going on in Iraq is having the precise opposite effect of its intent and that the USA has LOST.
Again, the USA has LOST
E.g.
The New Middle East
Richard N. Haass
From Foreign Affairs, November/December 2006
Summary: The age of U.S. dominance in the Middle East has ended and a new era in the modern history of the region has begun. It will be shaped by new actors and new forces competing for influence, and to master it, Washington will have to rely more on diplomacy than on military might.
When the Shiites Rise
Vali Nasr
From Foreign Affairs, July/August 2006
Summary: By toppling Saddam Hussein, the Bush administration has liberated and empowered Iraq’s Shiite majority and has helped launch a broad Shiite revival that will upset the sectarian balance in Iraq and the Middle East for years to come. This development is rattling some Sunni Arab governments, but for Washington, it could be a chance to build bridges with the region’s Shiites, especially in Iran.
Can Democracy Stop Terrorism?
November 6th, 2006 at 4:36 pmF. Gregory Gause III
From Foreign Affairs, September/October 2005
-
Summary: The Bush administration contends that the push for democracy in the Muslim world will improve U.S. security. But this premise is faulty: there is no evidence that democracy reduces terrorism. Indeed, a democratic Middle East would probably result in Islamist governments unwilling to cooperate with Washington.
Also, the USA will soon be expulsed from Iraq if it does not withdraw soon.
Mark my words.
The Fundamentalist Shiite Mullahs of Iraq are not going to let American infidels defile Iraq, a holiest of the many holiests.
What the Neocons and what the Bush admin wants has yet to square with reality.
The enduring occupation of Iraq is not different.
Al-Maliki is first and foremost a Shiite who screams about Saddam Hussein’s atrocities are still resonating since the 1980s.
He will stab the US in the back.
It is just a matter of time.
November 6th, 2006 at 4:56 pmThis is very important blog. I live in Muslim country and sometimes I think only opinion in America is that there should be freedom in Iraq and Americans should fight for freedom. Happy to know that there is Americans who do not want to fight for freedom. In Afghanistan Khalilzad make woman free to vote and drive car. Khalilzad say Jew and Christian have same rights as Muslim. This crazy and now he try same thing in Iraq. We try to make difficult for him and you try to make difficult also and this make me happy. I happy you have same opinion and organization progress have same opinion. Khalilzad and America should leave Iraq. Organization progress should continue help make America leave because we want same thing.
November 6th, 2006 at 4:57 pm[...] I don’t consider this to be a positive development (via Think Progress): Zalmay Khalilzad, the plainspoken dealmaker and Republican insider who has won praise and criticism for attempts to broker Sunni political participation in Iraq’s fragile government, is likely to quit his post as U.S. ambassador in Baghdad in the coming months, a senior Bush administration official said Monday. [...]
November 6th, 2006 at 5:10 pm#29 – Borat is in the house.
November 6th, 2006 at 5:56 pm[...] Atrios is first and links to Think Progress. Perhaps it’s because six weeks ago he said Maliki had a two month window. His Khalilzad is almost up. [...]
November 6th, 2006 at 6:06 pmthat comment kind of reminds me of “The Scarlet Letter”, where the minister who had sex with the girl commands her to reveal who had sex with her. Creepy. I think alot of GOP types are frustrated homosexuals who are in need on couseling to come to terms with this. Perhaps Dem’s can pass a health care bill to provide reimbursement for this type of counseling.
November 6th, 2006 at 10:07 pm#29, Khalid
ROTFLAMO!!
Typical in-the-closet Republican sitting around lubed up in his pink panties and jack-boots rambling on incoherently about things that are not even remotely associated with the topic at hand.
Khalid, instead of posing, screwing around, and looking for a few good men, get your ass to Iraq.
The Badr Corp needs canon fodder right now and the Baathists are looking for decoys.
November 6th, 2006 at 11:24 pmGood riddance to bad rubbish.
November 7th, 2006 at 12:09 pm[...] Khalilzad to Quit By Perhaps it’s because six weeks ago he said Maliki had a two month window. His Khalilzad is almost up. [...]
November 11th, 2006 at 2:42 pm[...] So, now a couple of months are over. Khalilzad has since quit. And Bush says Maliki’s still the man. [...]
November 30th, 2006 at 1:01 pm[...] iBrattleboro.com – Brattleboro, Vermont Citizen News wrote an interesting post today on Think Progress » Blog Archive » Iraq ambassador Khalilzad to quit … Here’s a quick excerpt … comes to make historic documentaries about the Iraq war … The enduring occupation of Iraq is not different. … Brock Log (BLog) – A BLog in the Life of… » Is … [...]
April 8th, 2008 at 11:06 am