Rice, Straw call for end to Iraqi deadlock

Reuters

BAGHDAD - The US and Britain piled pressure on Iraq?s leaders yesterday to break their deadlock over a new government and prime minister as quickly as possible, and to disband religious militias to avoid civil war.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, on the second day of a visit which had not been announced ahead of time, told Iraqi leaders the lack of a government nearly four months after elections was undermining security.

"The Iraqi people are rightly demanding they have a government after they braved the threats of terrorists to go to the polls and vote," Rice said in the fortified Green Zone, the diplomatic and government centre.

"The US and Britain, and others who have forces on the ground and have sacrificed here, have a deep desire and right to expect this process will keep moving forward.

In a democracy you can't have various groups with arms. You have to have the state with a monopoly on power."

Let us read that last quote once more:

"In a democracy you can't have various groups with arms. You have to have the state with a monopoly on power."

What is it that the so many have tried to tell us? Oh yes, that we are a democracy- keenfuly neglecting the word Republic.

Just remember, there is not a tinker's damn worth of difference between either the Repuglicrats or Democrans and that sooner or later, and my bet is on sooner, people will remember what voting from the rooftops means...

--WP