More than 5,000 Iraqi army officers and personnel staged a demonstration Monday, May 26, protesting the decision by the American civil administrator of Iraq Paul Bremer to dissolve the Iraqi army and all affiliated bodies and gave him until Monday to renege the move.
| Damn. Those people really are crazy. |
The protesting military people, carrying banners that dismissed the illegal American decision and the occupation of their country, threatened organized armed resistance if the Americans fail to heed their demands.
| Kinda late for that, ain't it? |
Lt. General Saheb el-Mosawi, who spoke on behalf of the demonstrators and the entire Iraqi army, stressed that the decision taken by the occupation authority, which sent more than one million Iraqi citizens jobless, was an unacceptable insult to the honorable Iraqi army.
| The one that raped Kuwait? The one that kept Sammy in power for 35 years? The one that fought the war with Iran? |
Asserting that Iraqi military people were dumbfounded by the American decision, the top brass outlined the âdemandsâ of the Iraqi army as an accelerated formation of an Iraqi government that represents all society; payment of military people salaries according to set criteria; and the formation of an Iraqi army, from the old one, that maintains the countryâs dignity. Threatening nationwide massive demonstrations by members of the Iraqi army, their families and ordinary citizens, Lit. Gen. El-Mosawi gave the occupying authority until Monday to meet the Iraqi army âdemandsâ. He underlined that the Iraqi people would not tolerate any other âhumiliationsâ from the occupation forces.
| He sounds like a real good candidate for some extended jug time, maybe for a blindfold and cigarette... |
But Lt. Gen. El-Mosawi declined to respond to a question by IslamOnline.net correspondent what the Iraqi army would do if the U.S. gave their demands the cold shoulder. Approached by IOL correspondent, several demonstrators agreed on dismissing the American decision as unacceptable, but differed on future steps if their demands were shrugged off by the Americans. Salim Fatah, an Iraqi infantry officer, asserted that the Iraqi army officers were becoming inpatient with the occupation forces who âcrossed all red lines.â He said they were considering to organize armed resistance against the Anglo-American forces if they declined to meet their demands.
| A good way to get yourself dead... |
Amar Abdullah, an Iraqi aviation officer, accused the occupation power of seeking to get rid of all powers in Iraq under the pretext of links to ousted president Saddam Hussein and the Baath party. This is unacceptable because the Iraqi army was not a political body, he said.
| Guess it all depends on your definition of "political." |
|