Iraqi Parliament Recess Funkadelic

On the Mess in Mesopotamia Outrage Scale, the news that the Iraqi Parliament will take a two-month summer recess during a crucial phase of the so-called surge seems to fall somewhere in the . . . well, I suppose that it falls somewhere.

I myself am much more concerned at the moment about Condi Rice meeting with representatives of the terrorist-coddling Syrian regime in the wake of Nancy Pelosi being excoriated by Condi's boss and the entire conservative Republican Party establishment for doing the very same thing, but then what do I know?

Anyway, is the summer recess a poke in the collective American eye? An insult to the troops? Or is it much ado about not a whole lot?

To begin with, the Iraqi Parliament is a marginally functional institution that was cobbled together at U.S. insistence. It has trouble mustering a quorum, is the target of suicide bomb attacks and notable for stage-managed walkouts and sectarian-driven boycotts.

In fact, it actually makes the U.S. Congress look pretty good, and that is no mean feat.

I am not sure what these parliamentarians would be doing over the summer since they don’t seem to do a whole lot the rest of the year. And the American model of the congressional summer recess – legislator goes home to bond with constituents, raise campaign dough and hang out at the country club pool – doesn’t seem to fit.

After much stumbling around on the matter, I decided to ask some Iraqi bloggers what they thought. Among the responses was this one from Raed Jarrar, who offers a corrective for the American viewpoint. He does not mince words:

"They're not taking a 'summer vacation.'

"According to the Iraqi constitution (the same one that was written in English by the U.S.), the parliament has two sessions a year. Each session is 4 months. The parliament has the right to extend its session for up to one month more than the 4 months.

"I think the mainstream media is just using this as an excuse to go ahead with the brand new policy of 'blame the Eye-raqiz': The Eye-raqis are lazy. They're taking vacations while we're dying to protect their freedom.

"If you want the Iraqis to work all the year long to protect their country, what about giving them their country back? what about listening to the majority of MPs who submitted a letter today demanding to set a timetable for pulling out all the occupation troops? What about recognizing the one million Iraqis, Sunni and Shia
Iraqis who went otodemonstrations last month demanding a troops withdrawal?

"I suggest that you let the Iraqis feel outraged against their own parliament, and you be outraged against the impotent U.S. Congress that doesn’t have the balls to stop the war."