Iraq's Shi'ites going their own way...

[bridgit]

ARBIL, Iraq - Amid failed moves for a peace deal between the Iraqi government and insurgents through a national-reconciliation plan, the Shi'ite majority is pushing ahead to create a federal region for themselves in the country's south.

The move is hugely sensitive in light of the increasingly hard political positions taken by Shi'ite Iran and the conflict in Lebanon involving Hezbollah, the militant Shi'ite group.

"The prime minister's reconciliation project has failed, and so far no major insurgency group has endorsed it," Kurdish member of parliament Abdullah Aliawayi said.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HH08Ak03.html

[acmavm]

1. How about that? Does anyone realize that EVERY SINGLE

THING THAT COULD GO WRONG has? Perfect score. Everything people warned these clowns about has come to pass.

Rarely do things work out so perfectly as this total screw up has.

[WCGreen]

2. Watch....

The British imposed boundries for Iraq with disolve...

Once the Shi'ite majority breaks away watch for the Kurds to push hard for a seperate country which of course would then spill over into Iran and Turkey....

The Sunni former Iraqi's would be sepeated from their natural allies to the south and so become an isolated but close to the Sunni population in Syria...

A big mess....

But one that has been expected in academia for years...

I first heard of this intra islamic fighting back in 1978 at Ohio State when a professor Thrace surmised that the USSR would crumble from within due to the mounting Islamic radicalism along it's Southern flank...

He predicted they would loose in Afganistan, that Saddam would fall and that the first part of the next century would be all about intra Islamic tension and warfare...

He also said this warfare could spread into Russia, Europe and Africa as it had in centuries past...

He also said the US would need to stay above the fray and focus more attention on securing our relationship with Central and South America and that China would be our true enemy....

Amazing man...

[bridgit]

3. i think that's right WC, i think that is what is on the horizon...

x( but the it's all like :hi: nice ohio pics too :-)

[WCGreen]

5. They never took a pic while I was smilin'....

But I had a great time...

[bridgit]

6. i seemed a nice, summer's day affair...made me crave chocolate milk...

that Hershey's bottle sitting there :9

[WCGreen]

7. I had to bring the Hersy's Syrup...

[Dhalgren]

4. I think that it is high time that Iraq was partitioned.

Three separate countries, each making its own security would sure beat the hell out of what is going on now. The idea of trading oil for water between the Sunnis and Shi'ia sounds like the start of a workable deal. And if the Sunnis are caught without oil, well, so are most nations of the world. If the Sunnis cannot live within the framework of a Shi'ia controlled government, then let them have their own region; if it doesn't have oil, so be it...

[bridgit]

8. did you see the Kurdish commercial aired by Stewart on the daily show...

touting "the other Iraq"...they know it, and if they know it others do to; it is almost time to partition

[Oversea Visitor]

9. This is FUBAR

x(

[mom cat]

10. Fragmentation inevitable ... Mission Accomplished

From the atimes article in the OP:

"If Iraq is to avoid the looming civil war, it "cannot continue the way it does now", Akreyi said. A federal structure cannot spare the country from violence, and Iraq needs a system that provides for larger self-rule for the main ethnic and sectarian groups, he said. This move would be a step short of federalism.

"Iraq's political map has to be reviewed and redrawn by creating a system of confederations, which devolves huge powers to separate Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish entities to govern themselves," he said. Since Sunnis control the source of the rivers in southern Shi'ite Iraq, Shi'ites and Sunnis can exchange water and oil, he said.

"To prevent further bloodshed we must not be afraid to admit that Iraq is not a holy entity and can be subject to revisions that can bring stability to the region," he said. "That is what necessitates confederation."

The disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union are good models for Iraq to follow, Akreyi said."

[bridgit]

11. yes ma'am...

x(