CrusaderFrank
Diamond Member
- May 20, 2009
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(COMMENT)Thanks, Rocco.
Do you see a "Free" Kurdistan on the horizon?
If so, how far out?
Turkey Would Support Iraqi Kurds' Bid For Self-Rule said:ERBIL, Iraq -- In a statement that could have a dramatic impact on regional politics in the Middle East, a spokesman for Turkey's ruling party recently told a Kurdish media outlet that the Kurds in Iraq have the right to self-determination. The statement has been relatively overlooked so far, but could signal a shift in policy as Turkey has long been a principal opponent of Kurdish independence, which would mean a partitioning of Iraq.
SOURCE: Posted: 06/17/2014 Ryan Grim reported from Washington. HUFFPOST
Half-Price Kurd Oil Threatens Iraq Breakup With Turkish Help said:Kurdish Peshmerga armed forces seized on the anarchy in northern Iraq, where militant Islamists routed the Baghdad governments army last week, to occupy the regions key oil hub, Kirkuk. The oil dispute has raised the possibility of the Kurdish region achieving financial self-sufficiency to go with those expanding territorial ambitions.
SOURCE: Bloomberg By Selcan Hacaoglu, Jack Fairweather and Nayla Razzouk Jun 19, 2014
Thanks for the Bloomberg link, Rocco.georgephillip; et al,
There is still the potential for a independent Kurdish Iraq; but not right away.
(COMMENT)Thanks, Rocco.
Do you see a "Free" Kurdistan on the horizon?
If so, how far out?
It looks like the prinicple external objection from Turkey may be subsiding.
Turkey Would Support Iraqi Kurds' Bid For Self-Rule said:ERBIL, Iraq -- In a statement that could have a dramatic impact on regional politics in the Middle East, a spokesman for Turkey's ruling party recently told a Kurdish media outlet that the Kurds in Iraq have the right to self-determination. The statement has been relatively overlooked so far, but could signal a shift in policy as Turkey has long been a principal opponent of Kurdish independence, which would mean a partitioning of Iraq.
SOURCE: Posted: 06/17/2014 Ryan Grim reported from Washington. HUFFPOST
Now the independence move will be internal and over the rights to the resources within the Kirkuk Oil Fields:
Half-Price Kurd Oil Threatens Iraq Breakup With Turkish Help said:Kurdish Peshmerga armed forces seized on the anarchy in northern Iraq, where militant Islamists routed the Baghdad governments army last week, to occupy the regions key oil hub, Kirkuk. The oil dispute has raised the possibility of the Kurdish region achieving financial self-sufficiency to go with those expanding territorial ambitions.
SOURCE: Bloomberg By Selcan Hacaoglu, Jack Fairweather and Nayla Razzouk Jun 19, 2014
It is possible that if the Baghdad Central Government becomes entangled in a lengthy struggle for survival with the Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS) [AKA: Islamic State of Levant (ISIL)], it could happen relatively quick; within the next two years. It depends on how the ISIS/ISIL skirt around the autonomous Kurdish Province.
(FOLLOW-UP)
I saw in the news today that General David Petraeus had spoke on the matter. This again is part of the "damned if you do - and - damned if you don't" scenario.
- "This cannot be the United States being the air force for Shiite militias, or a Shiite on Sunni Arab fight."
- "If America is to support (Iraq), then it would be in support of a government against extremists, rather than one side of what could be a sectarian civil war," he told a conference in London on Wednesday.
The question becomes, how do you militarily intervene on behalf of one side without looking like the ally?
If we intervene with air strikes, we look like the ally of the Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (as GEN Petraeus says: The Shi'ite Air Force).
Most Respectfully,
R
Or maybe neither Bush nor Obama nor whoever comes next has the slightest intention to end the war against terrorism? For almost one hundred years, Americans have been fed a steady diet of fear in the form of propaganda against the Killer Hun, Godless Communist, and Islamic Jihadi; maybe the internet will help people paying attention make more productive decisions in the voting booth?It's a damn shame that Obama announced "mission accomplished" when US Navy Seals killed an old man in a compound in Pakistan and buried him in a bizarre ceremony at sea. Everything is political to the Hussein administration. Maybe he really thought that the killing of Bin Laden and a subsequent boost in the ratings translated to the end of the war against terrorism.
Only Iraq war veteran in Senate urges ‘extreme caution’ said:The only military veteran of the Iraq war serving in the Senate said Wednesday that the financial and personal costs of sending U.S. troops back into Iraq would be too great and that Iraqis -- not Americans -- need to rise up to defend their own country.
SOURCE: Washington Post BY ED O'KEEFE June 18, 2014
(COMMENT)Thanks for the Bloomberg link, Rocco.
"A tanker containing a million barrels of crude oil is floating around the Mediterranean, and its cargo is available at half-price. Yet if any country seizes the bargain, it may be pushing Iraq closer to disintegration.
"The oil aboard is at the center of a fight over its ownership between the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, which pumped and shipped the crude from its territory in northern Iraq, and the central government in Baghdad, which claims the rights to all oil revenue.
"Kurdish Peshmerga armed forces seized on the anarchy in northern Iraq..."
Is it your understanding the refinery at Baiji has fallen to ISIS?
Patrick Cockburn posted yesterday that the price of an AK bullet has tripled in Baghdad
"An important factor is how far President Masoud Barzani, head of the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government, who has just made historic gains for his people by taking over Kirkuk and other territories in dispute with Baghdad, will want to join a government counter-attack.
"The extent to which the entire 350,000 strong Iraqi army forces are demoralised is also unclear.
"Officers returning from Mosul say that their senior commanders fled or told them not to resist."
The Baghdad Fear Index » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
STATE OF JIHAD: THE REALITY OF THE ISLAMIC STATE IN IRAQ AND SYRIA said:ISIS has created a multi-ethnic army; almost a foreign legion, to secure its territory. These cadres—trained, indoctrinated, networked, equipped and funded—will doubtless present a challenge for Arab and Western security services in the coming years, all the more so if not dealt with in the very near future.
SOURCE: A The War on the Rocks article, by Douglas A. Ollivant and Brian Fishman May 21, 2014 · in Analysis Editor Frank Hoffman
I'm wondering if ISIS and Iraq's Sunni minority are carving a Sunni state from the remains of Iraq and Syria?
georgephillip; et al,
There is still the potential for a independent Kurdish Iraq; but not right away.
(COMMENT)Thanks, Rocco.
Do you see a "Free" Kurdistan on the horizon?
If so, how far out?
It looks like the prinicple external objection from Turkey may be subsiding.
Turkey Would Support Iraqi Kurds' Bid For Self-Rule said:ERBIL, Iraq -- In a statement that could have a dramatic impact on regional politics in the Middle East, a spokesman for Turkey's ruling party recently told a Kurdish media outlet that the Kurds in Iraq have the right to self-determination. The statement has been relatively overlooked so far, but could signal a shift in policy as Turkey has long been a principal opponent of Kurdish independence, which would mean a partitioning of Iraq.
SOURCE: Posted: 06/17/2014 Ryan Grim reported from Washington. HUFFPOST
Now the independence move will be internal and over the rights to the resources within the Kirkuk Oil Fields:
Half-Price Kurd Oil Threatens Iraq Breakup With Turkish Help said:Kurdish Peshmerga armed forces seized on the anarchy in northern Iraq, where militant Islamists routed the Baghdad governments army last week, to occupy the regions key oil hub, Kirkuk. The oil dispute has raised the possibility of the Kurdish region achieving financial self-sufficiency to go with those expanding territorial ambitions.
SOURCE: Bloomberg By Selcan Hacaoglu, Jack Fairweather and Nayla Razzouk Jun 19, 2014
It is possible that if the Baghdad Central Government becomes entangled in a lengthy struggle for survival with the Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS) [AKA: Islamic State of Levant (ISIL)], it could happen relatively quick; within the next two years. It depends on how the ISIS/ISIL skirt around the autonomous Kurdish Province.
(FOLLOW-UP)
I saw in the news today that General David Petraeus had spoke on the matter. This again is part of the "damned if you do - and - damned if you don't" scenario.
- "This cannot be the United States being the air force for Shiite militias, or a Shiite on Sunni Arab fight."
- "If America is to support (Iraq), then it would be in support of a government against extremists, rather than one side of what could be a sectarian civil war," he told a conference in London on Wednesday.
The question becomes, how do you militarily intervene on behalf of one side without looking like the ally?
If we intervene with air strikes, we look like the ally of the Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (as GEN Petraeus says: The Shi'ite Air Force).
Most Respectfully,
R
(COMMENT)Nuri Al Maliki became President of Iraq in June 2006. Since that time, while Nuri Al Maliki was President, the United States launched thousands of operations and airstrikes to support the government that he was the leader of. So this idea that we would some how be crossing some delicate line is rubbish. It was already crossed 8 years ago.
(COMMENT)The United States needs to quickly help what is left of the Iraqi military or else Shia militia's and the Iranian military will come in and the conflict will become far more sectarian then anything being seen now!
Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations said:Every State has the duty to refrain from any forcible action which deprives peoples referred to in the elaboration of the principle of equal rights and self-determination of their right to self-determination and freedom and independence.
SOURCE: A/RES/25/2625
The only happening I'm hoping for is simple justice for those who inflicted the current level of misery on the people of Iraq and Syria. While it's too much to expect Americans to prosecute those Republicans AND Democrats who voted for the invasion of Iraq, it may be possible to prosecute the war makers for the massive amounts of graft and corruption that's taken place since March 2003.
I'm wondering if ISIS and Iraq's Sunni minority are carving a Sunni state from the remains of Iraq and Syria?
You certainly appear to be hoping that it happens. Unfortunately for you, I think your going to be disappointed.
Or maybe neither Bush nor Obama nor whoever comes next has the slightest intention to end the war against terrorism? For almost one hundred years, Americans have been fed a steady diet of fear in the form of propaganda against the Killer Hun, Godless Communist, and Islamic Jihadi; maybe the internet will help people paying attention make more productive decisions in the voting booth?It's a damn shame that Obama announced "mission accomplished" when US Navy Seals killed an old man in a compound in Pakistan and buried him in a bizarre ceremony at sea. Everything is political to the Hussein administration. Maybe he really thought that the killing of Bin Laden and a subsequent boost in the ratings translated to the end of the war against terrorism.
We probably killed more than three thousand Muslims in Afghanistan before the end of 2001; most of them had never heard of the 911 terror attacks or New York, for that matter. 911 happened for several related reasons, IMHO. The US unconditional support for Israel since 1967 was probably the biggest, but stationing US troops in Saudi didn't help. Understanding 911 is probably the key to preventing the next New Pearl Harbor. We should start by demanding to see the redacted 28 pages from the Joint Congressional Investigation that dealt with who financed the attacks. If that money came from Saudi royals as many believe, we been bombing the wrong Muslims for 13 years.Or maybe neither Bush nor Obama nor whoever comes next has the slightest intention to end the war against terrorism? For almost one hundred years, Americans have been fed a steady diet of fear in the form of propaganda against the Killer Hun, Godless Communist, and Islamic Jihadi; maybe the internet will help people paying attention make more productive decisions in the voting booth?It's a damn shame that Obama announced "mission accomplished" when US Navy Seals killed an old man in a compound in Pakistan and buried him in a bizarre ceremony at sea. Everything is political to the Hussein administration. Maybe he really thought that the killing of Bin Laden and a subsequent boost in the ratings translated to the end of the war against terrorism.
Didn't we see an Islamic attack on the US about 13 years ago that destroyed the symbol of Capitalism and killed 3,000 people? What do we do about that? Apologize? What about the UN? Should we dismantle it? Should we hunker down and hope that half the world under Islamic rule won't nuke us some day to avenge some 6th century prophesy?
I know it was the illegal US bombing of Cambodia that brought Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge to power, and how Vietnam removed the Khmer Rouge from power in late '78 early '79. If your definition of "good guy" is one who defends his home and family from foreign invaders, the VC were the good guys during the US invasion of that country.It is a version of pol pot and the khmer rouge taking over after we withdrew and left the South Vietnamese to their own devices.
Unfortunately, most people are completely ignorant when it comes to various logistics when it comes to war. This "war on terror" was never going to be about tracking down one man like bin laden, or one group like al qaeda.
Obviously the paradigm shifted in how this country was going to deal with threats abroad post 911. No longer could we afford to play diplomatic games, especially when a leader put out deliberate messages that he was pursuing to regenerate his desires for WMDs.
That is old news. The problem is this war on terror is not about ONE country. The only hope there is, is education. There are middle eastern countries that have good trade relations and are a little more secular than many think. Like United Emirates and there are large numbers of Iranian citizens that are not into these fundamentalist views.
The thought was establishing a presence there. Not for "occupying" or subjugating people That is not the case and this country has never really done that.
IF this country abandoned Japan or Germany post WWII and left those war torn countries to their own devices, the fundamentalist elements would have risen and we would have seen similar things there. We still have bases there and both countries are strong allies. Consider what the average person would have thought about that thought in 1942.
The point is this is a real war. Yes, terrorism is not going any way any time soon, and the only hope is education. Introducing groups of people to the possibilities.
Yes, a lot of generalities, but the fact is this country does not have the stomach for what war truly entails logistically. Whats more is our enemies know it all too well. Like our rules of engagement where our enemies know our soldiers cannot shoot at civilian homes, so they shoot at our boys from civilian homes. Kill our boys too. They know we cannot shoot lest fired upon. They know we cannot search mosques or search through their Korans, so they hide in mosques, shoot at and kill our boys from mosques, and they communicate with korans.
This has been how it has been since the days of Vietnam when our beloved press would report and give away our positions on television and give all sorts of crucial information out. The press and this Twitter age society has only grown worse.
Could you imagine if the press acted like they have for 50 years during WWII? What kind of conniption would they have had over the bombing at Dresden?
Yes, what we are seeing and what we will always see is this type of crap. We cannot establish ourselves cause according to many in this country we are always these so called oppressors and "occupiers." Some how they manage to make these elements that carry out barbaric mass murders are labelled as good guys. We are always the bad guy. Saddam hussein is some how a good guy. The Vietcong were good guys to this element in this country.
It is another case of pol pot and the khmer rouge. Those that do not learn from history..............
You know the rest.
We probably killed more than three thousand Muslims in Afghanistan before the end of 2001; most of them had never heard of the 911 terror attacks or New York, for that matter. 911 happened for several related reasons, IMHO. The US unconditional support for Israel since 1967 was probably the biggest, but stationing US troops in Saudi didn't help. Understanding 911 is probably the key to preventing the next New Pearl Harbor. We should start by demanding to see the redacted 28 pages from the Joint Congressional Investigation that dealt with who financed the attacks. If that money came from Saudi royals as many believe, we been bombing the wrong Muslims for 13 years.Or maybe neither Bush nor Obama nor whoever comes next has the slightest intention to end the war against terrorism? For almost one hundred years, Americans have been fed a steady diet of fear in the form of propaganda against the Killer Hun, Godless Communist, and Islamic Jihadi; maybe the internet will help people paying attention make more productive decisions in the voting booth?
Didn't we see an Islamic attack on the US about 13 years ago that destroyed the symbol of Capitalism and killed 3,000 people? What do we do about that? Apologize? What about the UN? Should we dismantle it? Should we hunker down and hope that half the world under Islamic rule won't nuke us some day to avenge some 6th century prophesy?
Tell Dick and Dubya and Bill and Hill to saddle up, militants aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have taken Mosul and Tikrit and are moving on Samarra, a one hour drive from Baghdad.
"Clashes between Iraqi Security forces and hundreds of Sunni militants aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, an offshoot of al Qaeda) resulted in the capture of Mosul and Tikrit by ISIL earlier today.
"Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, was overrun -- Iraqi forces reportedly abandoning their posts, shedding their uniforms and dropping their weapons as they fled the ISIL attacks.
"Tikrit, about 135 miles closer to Baghdad, was attacked not long after, with little resistance -- and the AFP is reporting fighting now outside Samarra, only 70 miles north of the capital city.
"The attackers overran a military base, freed hundreds of prisoners, and have seized the Turkish consulate in Mosul, capturing and holding 50 Turkish citizens. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has promised to put a halt to the advances, and called on citizens to take up arms as well."
Iraqi Insurgents Capture Northern Cities, Move Toward Baghdad - In Focus - The Atlantic
Higher gas prices?Tell Dick and Dubya and Bill and Hill to saddle up, militants aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have taken Mosul and Tikrit and are moving on Samarra, a one hour drive from Baghdad.
"Clashes between Iraqi Security forces and hundreds of Sunni militants aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, an offshoot of al Qaeda) resulted in the capture of Mosul and Tikrit by ISIL earlier today.
"Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, was overrun -- Iraqi forces reportedly abandoning their posts, shedding their uniforms and dropping their weapons as they fled the ISIL attacks.
"Tikrit, about 135 miles closer to Baghdad, was attacked not long after, with little resistance -- and the AFP is reporting fighting now outside Samarra, only 70 miles north of the capital city.
"The attackers overran a military base, freed hundreds of prisoners, and have seized the Turkish consulate in Mosul, capturing and holding 50 Turkish citizens. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has promised to put a halt to the advances, and called on citizens to take up arms as well."
Iraqi Insurgents Capture Northern Cities, Move Toward Baghdad - In Focus - The Atlantic
Exactly, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Killer Muslims killing Killer Muslims...No Americans in the way. Where is the error?