A consensus of sorts

The "Iraqi Declaration of Independence" has been signed by most of the major political forces within the country. And the content explains in large part why it's been wilfully ignored in the North American media:

(T)he "Pact of Honor" that was adopted consists of 14 points, among which the following demands and agreements are the most important...:

• "withdrawal of the occupiers and setting of an objective timetable for their withdrawal from Iraq"; "elimination of all the consequences of their presence, including any bases for them in the country, while working seriously for the building of [Iraqi] security institutions and military forces within a defined schedule";...

• categorical rejection of the establishment of any relations with Israel;...

• "to activate the de-Ba'athification law and to consider that the Ba'ath party is a terrorist organization for all the tyranny it brought on the oppressed sons of Iraq, and to speed up the trial of overthrown president Saddam Hussein and the pillars of his regime"...

In sum: the most powerful people within Iraq want a solid withdrawal timetable to enable them to speed up their reprisals against political enemies, and to express their dislike of Israel on the international scene. While there may be some more positive agenda in the points not yet reported, it seems all too apparent that the main unifying factors in Iraq at the moment are exactly the problems that newfound democracy was supposed to eliminate.

(Edit: Via Daily Kos.)