{"id":2018,"date":"2005-04-19T23:24:16","date_gmt":"2005-04-20T06:24:16","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2005-04-19T23:24:16","modified_gmt":"2005-04-20T06:24:16","slug":"iraqi-parliament-green-zone-must-be-liberated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2005\/04\/19\/iraqi-parliament-green-zone-must-be-liberated\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraqi Parliament: Green Zone must be liberated"},"content":{"rendered":"

Give ’em a little sovereignty and they get all uppity:<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI saw the whole thing and adding insult to injury was when Iraqi soldiers drew their rifles at brother Fatah as he was being mistreated by the Americans,\u201d said Ali Yushaa an independent Shiite MP.<\/p>\n

Deputies took turns to speak for almost two hours about the many indignities that they and the Iraqi population suffer when coming in contact with US troops.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to the Geneva conventions, an occupying force must respect the occupied nation,\u201d said Abdul Khaliq Zanganah, a Kurdish MP. \u201cThis offending soldier must be thrown out of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Sunni MP, Mudhar Shawkat, handed in the green VIP badge issued by the US military authorising him and other deputies to enter the Green Zone and said he would only attend parliament if sessions were moved to another location.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should be put on notice and given two months \u2014 no more \u2014 to leave the Green Zone,\u201d he said before walking out. Another unidentified MP shouted: \u201cYes, the end of occupation begins here. The Green Zone must be liberated from occupation!\u201d Speaker Hajem Al Hassani said he would suspend sessions altogether unless they move within a week to a building on the fringes of the Green Zone that has its own entrance and would be guarded by Iraqi soldiers.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnough is enough!\u201d he said before adjourning parliament until Sunday. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, what sparked all this anger? Fatah Al Sheikh explains:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I told the translator with the soldier that I was a member of the national assembly, he answered: To hell with you and the national assembly,\u201d Sheikh told his colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got really upset, so I got down from my vehicle to confront him and at that moment a US soldier came over and grabbed my neck and choked me for a minute or so.\u201d Sheikh said the whole fracas started when he lined up in his car with other deputies to enter the Green Zone, the seat of the transitional government and home to the US embassy, foreign advisors and contractors.<\/p>\n

He said he decided to get out of line and come back later when it was less crowded, but that as he began to pull out, a US soldier came over and kicked his car. \u201cI showed him my badge, but he grabbed it from my hand and tossed it in my face,\u201d said the bearded Sheikh. \u201cWhen I got out of my car, the soldier twisted my arm.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US military said it was investigating the incident and refused to comment. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This kind of incident happens all the time in Occupied Iraq, with the difference that this time an MP got the treatment and he actually has recourse to a public platform from which to speak, unlike the ordinary Iraqis who endure the indignities in silence. Whatever will the Americans do? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Give ’em a little sovereignty and they get all uppity: \u201cI saw the whole thing and adding insult to injury was when Iraqi soldiers drew their rifles at brother Fatah as he was being mistreated by the Americans,\u201d said Ali Yushaa an independent Shiite MP. Deputies took turns to speak for almost two hours about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[676],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-antiwar-movement"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2018"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}