What Are They Up To Now?

Ran across this today... Interesting....

BAGHDAD -- A majority of Iraqi lawmakers have signed onto draft legislation calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq and demanding a freeze on the number of such troops already in the country, lawmakers said Thursday.

The legislation was being discussed even as U.S. legislators were locked in a dispute with the White House over their call to start reducing the size of the U.S. force in Iraq in the coming months.

The proposed Iraqi legislation, drafted by the parliamentary bloc loyal to anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, was signed by 144 members of the 275-member house, said Nassar al-Rubaie, leader of Sadr's bloc.

The bloc, which holds 30 parliamentary seats and sees the U.S.-led forces as an occupying army, has pushed similar bills before, but this would be the first time it had garnered the support of a majority of lawmakers.

The bill would require the Iraqi government to seek approval from the parliament before it requests an extension of the United Nations mandate for foreign forces to be in Iraq, Rubaie said. It also calls for a timetable for the troop withdrawal and a freeze on the size of the foreign forces.

The UN Security Council voted unanimously in November to extend the U.S.-led forces' mandate until the end of 2007. The resolution, however, said the council "will terminate this mandate earlier if requested by the government of Iraq."

n U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney saluted U.S. troops stationed near former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit on Thursday and defended a recent decision to extend U.S. military deployments as "vital to the mission."

Original Source.

My question is, what is the Sadr controlled Iraqi Parliament up to now? Now, if the Iraqi government and it's people are ready to govern and protect themselves, than I am all for bringing our boys home. They have to be ready though, or we are going to see Sadr as the next dictator in Iraq. We didn't oust Saddam at such a great cost to our country and the families of our lost men and women to have Sadr in power. The saddest part is that if those in the Iraqi Parliament want this, then we won't be able to stay whether they are ready to self-govern and self-protect or not. We will have to honor the decisions of the democratically elected government of Iraq that we helped to place in power.

My only hope at this point is that we can get enough, or all of what we set out to do, done before the Democrats or the Sadrists get what they seem to both want so badly. I want to see Iraq be able to stand on its own, and co-exist in a way much greater than other countries in the region have been able to do. I don't think that will ever happen if Sadr is calling the shots. Sometimes I catch myself saying (out loud even), "Why is he still alive?"