Iraqi Lawmakers Plan to Take a Nice Summer Break

Iraqi lawmakers have announced they plan to take a two month summer break because the summer heat in Iraq makes it too hard to meet.

Iraqi lawmakers do not seem to think violence in Iraq is bad enough to cancel a planned summer break in July and August, because these lawmakers know the US troops will continue to wage the war of terror on their city streets without them.

With plenty of work still to be done in Iraq, Iraqi officials feel there is no real pressing matter that cannot wait until lawmakers reconvene in September. Never mind the fact that Iraqi lawmakers have yet to reach agreement on matters like regulating distribution of the country's oil wealth and reversing measures that have excluded many Sunnis from jobs and government positions because of Baath party membership. Oh yeah, one other thing, what about all the violence that continues to plague Iraq. I guess the Iraqi lawmakers have learned something from US lawmakers after all--nothing should get in the way of taking a nice, long vacation.

One good thing coming out of this Iraq summer break issue is the fact Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress have once again found common ground. Members of both parties have expressed outrage that Iraqi lawmakers are planning a two month vacation while US troops continue to have their blood spilled while trying to stabilize their country.

"If they go off on vacation for two months while our troops fight — that would be the outrage of outrages," said Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn.


Added Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb: "I certainly hope they're not going to take any sort of recess when the question is whether they're going to make any progress."

This plan by the Iraqi government once again has Democrats pointing to the need for a time table on US troop withdrawals from Iraq. Democrats believe that if Iraq knows US troops will be pulled out by a certain date; Iraqi lawmakers may decide to stay in session to work through some of the problems facing their country.

Republicans were quick to point out that even if the Iraqi government was given a time table that this does not necessarily mean factions within the Iraqi government will work together. Republicans feel these groups may 'ramp up' fighting which will lead to bigger bloodbaths because these groups will be fighting for control of Iraq because they will known an exact date when US troops will be leaving.

On Monday — the same day Rep. Ike Skelton (news, bio, voting record), D-Mo., issued a statement urging the Iraqi politicians to reconsider their summer break — the Iraqi parliament called for a ban on U.S. troops near a holy Shiite Muslim shrine. Protests were led by the radical anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's bloc after U.S. and Iraqi troops conducted a raid near the shrine.

If the Iraqi government feel they still need US troop support, then the Iraqi government may want to rethink this vacation plan. If more US troops are killed during this vacation period, the outrage of the American public may become so great that even President Bush will not be able to ignore the wishes of an ever growing populace that is quickly becoming more and more disenchanted with the efforts of the Iraqi governments ability to stabilize and control their own country.

Read more about the Iraqi governments vacations plans at Yahoo News