Friday, October 06, 2006
THE VIEW FROM IRBIL
Condi Rice put on her best “pretty please” smile for a visit with Massoud Barzani, the President of the Nation of Kurdistan – OOPS! I mean the northern Kurdish Province of Iraq…
“Rice Urges Kurdish Cooperation With Iraqi Government”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,218178,00.html
The President and the Secretary of Begging met last Friday in Irbil. Rice made a point of thanking Barzani for the cooperation America has received from the Kurdish people, stating “I appreciate also your important participation in the process of national reconciliation. Thank you.”
Barzani reaffirmed Kurdistan’s commitment, saying “Kurdistan, "like any other nation, has the right to self-determination." However, he said he is committed to a "federal democratic and pluralistic Iraq."”
I am reliably informed a more literal translation from the original Kurdish Barzani spoke was “fuck you very much, Iraq can be democratic and pluralist without us”…
Chalk this part of the ongoing disaster up to wishful thinking 50% and unintended consequences one-half…
The article reminds us that the Kurds have been pretty much on their own, protected by the US air Force since 1991. I’ll remind you that before that, they were attacked and brutalized by everyone around them… I’ll remind you there has been a movement to establish a Kurdish state for a very long time.
I’ll point out they have had 15 years to build that Nation, it’s infrastructure, police forces… And military arms, I’m sure.
And I’ll ask you: Now that they have achieved their dream, why should they give any of it back?
But as the article notes, that was just what Rice sought:
“Convinced oil revenue is the long-term key to economic independence for a unified Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appealed Friday for cooperation from the autonomous and oil rich Kurdish north.”
I’ll also ask: If they tell us – and the rest of Iraq – to piss off, what are we going to do about it?
So many “ifs”… If some means can be found to convince the insurgents to surge somewhere else… If an uncommon fit of common sense seizes the kill for god crowd… Still it is for naught if the country fragments along more or less ethnic / religious lines: The issue can be simply defined:
“Sunni Arabs, who had enjoyed control over Iraq under Saddam, now fear the Kurdish push for secession under the nation's new federal system. Should the Shiite majority in the oil-rich south follow suit, the Sunnis would find themselves with little more than date groves and sand.”
Well, some might say that’s Karma for supporting the old bastard… But then the practical question becomes, how can such an arrangement ever produce a peaceful, stable Nation or Nations where Iraq once was?
And the answer, most likely, is by balancing it on the back of GI Joe and funding it from the US treasury…
Thanks, George… Oh well. You wanted bases over there… Looks like we’ll have them whether we want them or not. Forever…
“Rice Urges Kurdish Cooperation With Iraqi Government”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,218178,00.html
The President and the Secretary of Begging met last Friday in Irbil. Rice made a point of thanking Barzani for the cooperation America has received from the Kurdish people, stating “I appreciate also your important participation in the process of national reconciliation. Thank you.”
Barzani reaffirmed Kurdistan’s commitment, saying “Kurdistan, "like any other nation, has the right to self-determination." However, he said he is committed to a "federal democratic and pluralistic Iraq."”
I am reliably informed a more literal translation from the original Kurdish Barzani spoke was “fuck you very much, Iraq can be democratic and pluralist without us”…
Chalk this part of the ongoing disaster up to wishful thinking 50% and unintended consequences one-half…
The article reminds us that the Kurds have been pretty much on their own, protected by the US air Force since 1991. I’ll remind you that before that, they were attacked and brutalized by everyone around them… I’ll remind you there has been a movement to establish a Kurdish state for a very long time.
I’ll point out they have had 15 years to build that Nation, it’s infrastructure, police forces… And military arms, I’m sure.
And I’ll ask you: Now that they have achieved their dream, why should they give any of it back?
But as the article notes, that was just what Rice sought:
“Convinced oil revenue is the long-term key to economic independence for a unified Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appealed Friday for cooperation from the autonomous and oil rich Kurdish north.”
I’ll also ask: If they tell us – and the rest of Iraq – to piss off, what are we going to do about it?
So many “ifs”… If some means can be found to convince the insurgents to surge somewhere else… If an uncommon fit of common sense seizes the kill for god crowd… Still it is for naught if the country fragments along more or less ethnic / religious lines: The issue can be simply defined:
“Sunni Arabs, who had enjoyed control over Iraq under Saddam, now fear the Kurdish push for secession under the nation's new federal system. Should the Shiite majority in the oil-rich south follow suit, the Sunnis would find themselves with little more than date groves and sand.”
Well, some might say that’s Karma for supporting the old bastard… But then the practical question becomes, how can such an arrangement ever produce a peaceful, stable Nation or Nations where Iraq once was?
And the answer, most likely, is by balancing it on the back of GI Joe and funding it from the US treasury…
Thanks, George… Oh well. You wanted bases over there… Looks like we’ll have them whether we want them or not. Forever…
