US fears civil war in Kirkuk

[leftchick]

http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/news/317774.asp


US fears civil war in Kirkuk

American officers have warned that giving all senior positions to the Kurds in Kirkuk would lead to rioting by the Arab and Turkomen communities.



April 7— The US military has warned that ethnic tension in the oil rich northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk has reached flashpoint, according to a report carried by the Knight Ridder news agency.

The report cited US officers as saying that while attention was being focused on the formation of the central Iraqi government Kirkuk was becoming a powder keg.

Speaking to the agency Colonel Anthony Wickham said that in the post election period Kurds had seized all senior positions in this region and that Arabs and Turkomens were arming and could stage an uprising.

“The worst scenario is a civil war,” Wickham said, adding that this would damage the stability of all Iraq.

The agency also reported that Kurdish migration to the city was continuing at full scale, adding that after some Kurdish police were killed in an attack last month two Turkomen street salesmen had been badly tortured in the town.

[sabra]

1. A civil war was predicted....

[Journeyman]

2. Meanwhile, Journeyman, sitting at his computer thousands of miles away...

with no first hand knowledge of this foreign land and no personal agenda to push, quietly pencils a checkmark beside another in a very long string of increasingly dire predictions he and countless others made about the inadvisability of an Iraq Attack.

[cynatnite]

4. I sent my uncle a list

How come we knew all this shit was going to happen and those supposedly brilliant :eyes: minds at the Pentagon and WH didn't?

:banghead:

[callous taoboy]

6. Indeed, Journeyman-

The minute these crazies starting pointing to Iraq I smelled a rat.

[DemoTex]

10. I am reminded of Dr. Martin Luther King and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Hescel ..

.. and their eloquent words protesting the war in Vietnam at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967.

I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together, Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam. The recent statements of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart, and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: "A time comes when silence is betrayal." That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.
Dr. Martin Luther King

http://www.vietnamwar.com/BeyondVietnamMLK.htm

In a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

[TexasLawyer]

13. Focus Group

Those who opposed the war were merely a "focus group" according to Bush. Why would he need to listen to us?

Or was destabilization and permanent war the objective all along?

[Ironpost]

3. Idiot in chief sure has a handle on things don't he.

What a mess he has created for us to clean up.

[grumpy old fart]

5. Man, this was OBVIOUS from the get go.....

I mean, why WOULDN'T the Kurds take this historic opportunity for independence? They are no more "Iraqi" than I am. I mean if they're Iraqi, then the Poles must have been Germans after they were "annexed" in WWII.
So what's chimp gonna do now? Go force the Kurds to live under Arab rule? Man, they've been out from under that thumb for at least 15 years. They ain't going back.

[Boo Boo]

7. Hell man, they fit right in!

Sistani isn't Iraqi. He's Iranian.
Talibani, the newly-elected, apparently has a British passport.

Nobody in that country is Iraqi. Probably the most "Iraqi" of the bunch are guys like Saddam, Sunnis, and they're the ones getting kicked to the curb.

Big problem with the Kurds is they have this dream of "Kurdistan," not just independence. They have maps with "Kurdistan" on them, and it includes parts of Turkey, and Iran, just to name a couple (yes there's more). This is a big reason why even those that opposed invading don't think we can leave now. Both Iran and Turkey have a real interest in suppressing the Kurds, and the Kurds appear to be spoiling for a fight.

Should be good! :popcorn:

[grumpy old fart]

8. Yep...and I'm rooting for the Kurds...hell, I thought it was about freedom

anyway,no?....lol.....think chimp even has a clue?

[Calico Jack Rackham]

9. Don't forget that Turkey has

also been sending in covert forces to destabilize Kirkuk and undermine the Kurdish leadership there for the past two years. The Turks know that if the Kurds contol the northern oilfields of Iraq they will be sel sufficient enough to declare independence. This of course will also mean that the PKK and other Kurdish militants will step up their own campaigns of independence within Turkey's geographical borders. Ankara's track record on the treatment of the Kurdish people outs Saddam's to shame.

[southernboy]

11. "in case of fighting in Kirkuk, Turkey cannot remain a spectator."

-Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul

"It might be a historic joke, but Turks and Kurds need each other."

http://www.ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=27509

[Zerex71]

12. I thought there would be cheering and roses?

Isn't everything peaceful? Isn't democracy blooming?