MB Civic

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http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1122-20.htm

All this would be encouraging if sources are reliable.

Stephen Hadley carried a six-point message for Iraqi officials on his recent trip to Baghdad:

* include Iraqi resistance and opposition leaders in any initiative towards national reconciliation;general amnesty for the armed resistance fighters;

* dissolve the Iraqi commission charged with banning the Baath Party;

* start the disbanding of militias and death squads;

* cancel any federalism proposal to divide Iraq into three regions, and combine central authority for the central government with greater self-rule for local governors;

* distribute oil revenues in a fair manner to all Iraqis, including the Sunnis whose regions lack the resource.

The snag is the Shiite leadership who don’t want to cede control .. so there might be a coup against al-Maliki.

This part is very cool…

Peace groups like Global Exchange sent delegations to create people-to-people relations with Iraqi opponents of the occupation and members of civil society. This writer met with Iraqi exiles in London, who suggested further meetings in Amman. Those contacts were facilitated in 2005 by a former Jordanian diplomat, Munther Haddadin, who supported open-ended discussions with Iraqis in exile, Jordan’s Crown Prince Hassan, and with intermediaries from the insurgency who made the dangerous 15-hour drive from Baghdad to Amman on more than one occasion… Earlier this year, an American peace delegation, including Cindy Sheehan, found themselves in two days of meetings with Iraqis of every political stripe. US Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) was crucial in making these contracts possible…

60’s icon Tom Hayden and Global Exchange facilitating people to people contacts with opponents of the occupation … Potent anti war forces in Congress…

…Also, Galt played piano for Laguardia High School’s reendition of “Where Do I Go” at the Cindy Sheehan event at St John the Divine (with Jim Rado in attendance) … who says the 60’s are over?!
-MAB