WP: Kurds Reclaiming Prized Territory In Northern Iraq

[Pirate Smile]

Kurds Reclaiming Prized Territory In Northern Iraq
Repatriation by Political Parties Alters Demographics and Sparks Violence

By Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, October 30, 2005; Page A01

KIRKUK, Iraq -- Providing money, building materials and even schematic drawings, Kurdish political parties have repatriated thousands of Kurds into this tense northern oil city and its surrounding villages, operating outside the framework of Iraq's newly ratified constitution and sparking sporadic violence between Kurdish settlers and the Arabs who are a minority here, according to U.S. military officials and Iraqi political leaders.

The rapidly expanding settlements, composed of two-bedroom cinderblock houses whose dimensions are prescribed by the Kurdish parties, are effectively re-engineering the demography of northern Iraq, enabling the Kurds to add what ultimately may be hundreds of thousands of voters ahead of a planned 2007 referendum on the status of Kirkuk. The Kurds hope to make the city and its vast oil reserves part of an autonomous Kurdistan.

-snip-
"Our patience is about to end," said Hussein Ali Hamdani, a 64-year-old Sunni Arab tribal leader. "There are 137 houses in this village now and in each there are at least five" Kurds. "We will protect our land and not abandon it. It's our honor."

"The Arabs will not give up Kirkuk," said Mohammed Khalil, the leader of an Arab bloc within the Kurdish-dominated Kirkuk provincial council. "If America really wants to help Iraq, it will try to stop the Kurds from gaining control over Kirkuk, which would start a civil war."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/29/AR2005102901396.html

[Straight Shooter]

1. You could have seen this one coming from a mile away.

This was one of the predicted outcomes of invading Iraq.

[wtmusic]

2. Once again, the scary aspect of this administration is not their deeds

but the fact that these stupid f*cking idiots ever achieved power.

Democracy has shown us it is far more vulnerable than we thought.

[babylonsister]

5. I can't blame it on democracy; this admin doesn't care about

that concept, for here or Iraq.

[babylonsister]

3. Iraq is tribal, territorial, always has been, and we aren't

going to change it. The fuck-ups that started this never thought of that obviously, witness the DSM. Let's get in there, blow the place away, but they never considered exiting. And my full blame goes on the blivet and his henchmen for their lack of any kind of damn plan.

[Rowdyboy]

4. We have set the stage for a civil war that could easily enlarge to WWIII

Iraq will continue to implode. As the Kurds press to expand, both the Sunnis and the Turks will press back. Syria and Iran will join in and a single strike against Israel makes this a HUGE regional war. From that nightmare, WWIII is just step away.

George Bush has unleashed the hounds of hell. I only hope they can be recaptured.

[LynnTheDem]

6. But who coulda knowed???

"Stand tall and publicly tell the America people the truth about another bad war that could well lead to another died-in-vain black wall. Or even worse."
-Col. David Hackworth
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29786

"Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."
-President GHW Bush, 1998;
http://www.rense.com/general43/quote.htm

"Do we really want to occupy Iraq for the next 30 years? …In Japan, American occupation forces quickly became 50,000 friends. In Iraq, they would quickly become 50,000 terrorist targets…. Nations such as China can only view the prospect of an American military consumed for the next generation by the turmoil of the Middle East as a glorious windfall."
-James Webb, former Sec. of Navy under Ronald Reagan, Decorated Marine Veteran
http://www.sftt.org/article09302002a.html

"A billion bitter enemies will rise out of this war."
- Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2003, Full page ad in Wall Street Journal by major GOP contributors
http://talkleft.com/new_archives/001444.html

"Right now, the course we're on, we're achieving Bin Laden's ends…. I've never seen it so bad between the office of the secretary of defense and the military. There's a significant majority believing this is a disaster.

The two parties whose interests have been advanced have been the Iranians and al-Qaeda. Bin Laden could argue with some cogency that our going into Iraq was the equivalent of the Germans in Stalingrad. They defeated themselves by pouring more in there. Tragic."
-Gen. William Odom, former head of the National Security Agency
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091704Y.shtml

"The idea that this is going to go the way these guys planned is ludicrous. There are no good options."
-General Joseph Hoare, the former marine commandant and head of US Central Command
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091704Y.shtml

"No, I don't think we're winning. We're in trouble, we're in deep trouble in Iraq."
-Republican senator Chuck Hagel, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
http://www.iht.com/articles/539563.htm

"We are about to do something that will ignite a fuse in this region that we will rue the day we ever started."
-Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, former Head of Central Command for U.S.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/10/17/zinni

[Teaser]

7. reverse ethnic cleansing

Ah well, it was bound to happen.