BostonGlobe-Kurds' separatist ambitions pose challenge to Iraq unity

[maddezmom]

SAID SADIQ, Iraq -- Brigadier Rahim Mohammed Shakur's allegiance to the Iraqi Army is about as solid as the faxed sheet of paper he received two weeks ago, announcing that his Kurdish peshmerga fighters were now regular Iraqi soldiers, under Baghdad's command.

"I am a Kurd," Shakur, 42, said cheerfully last week, as his tank battalion trained with 100 Soviet tanks and armored personnel carriers that his fighters raided from Saddam Hussein's army in April 2003. "If we are ever attacked, I will stop being a regular Iraqi soldier and become a peshmerga again."

Iraqi Kurdistan's de facto independence from Baghdad -- and the popular desire in the three northern provinces to secede from Iraq -- could pose one of the thorniest problems over the coming year for the ethnic, religious, and political factions trying to craft a new Iraqi federal constitution.

The importance of the Kurds is not lost on US officials; on Monday, as American forces launched the attack on Fallujah, US Ambassador John Negroponte flew from Baghdad to Sulaymaniyah for a day to ask leaders from the PUK to commit to a smooth national election process.

more: http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/11/14/kurds_separatist_ambitions_pose_challenge_to_iraq_unity/

[Swede]

1. 5 seconds after Bush leaves Iraq civil war will break out.

Kurds,shiites and sunni will slaughter each other.

[lapfog_1]

3. What makes you think that they will wait until the US is gone? - n/t

[Swede]

4. Because Bush has to have a democracy before he leaves.

Then the fat is in the fire.

[lapfog_1]

5. They will have an election

and, thus, a democracy. See.

We live in a "1984" nation now. They say it is so, so it must be
so. We declare victory, secure the oil fields, build a permanent
base or so (maybe 12), and, as long as they leave the oil fields
alone, leave the Iraqis to do whatever the hell they want to each
other.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Are Kurds to be the "insurgents" of tomorrow?