TIME: Will Iraq Start To Unravel?

[huckleberry]

Kurdish calls for autonomy are generating fears of ethnic conflict that could complicate U.S. exit plans

Ethnic grudges die hard in Iraq. In towns like Dibagan all across the country, long-simmering disputes between Arabs and Kurds, Sunnis and Shi'ites, and even secular and religious Iraqis are bubbling to the surface—all of which has complicated the U.S.'s plan to transfer power to a new Iraqi government by June 30 and raised questions about whether Iraq will remain whole after it does. And so it was not entirely surprising that the Bush Administration last week scrambled for help in sorting out the mess. In a meeting at the White House, President Bush asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to come up with a plan for Iraqi self-rule that the country's squabbling factions could accept.

snip

...Retired General Anthony Zinni, the former top commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, told TIME that foreign jihadists are trying to incite a civil war in Iraq. "They want Iraq to come apart," he says. "They want the U.S. to fail, and they want to see it become three theocratic states. They don't want to see Iraq hold together as a democracy." Says Herro Kader Mustafa, a Kurdish-American coalition official in Mosul: "We are doing our best to make sure things don't erupt."

snip

The U.S. is worried that Kurdish hopes for greater autonomy could spark clashes with Arabs living in northern Iraq, especially if the Kurds claim control over Kirkuk, an ethnically mixed city in an area prized for its vast oil reserves. The prospect of an oil-rich, autonomous Kurdish state also frightens Iraq's neighbors—Syria, Iran and Turkey—all of which have large, restive Kurdish populations that might be emboldened and financed by wealthy Iraqi Kurds. Turkey, which has fought a 15-year war against Kurdish separatists, has threatened to send its army into Iraq to prevent the Kurds from attempting to secede. In a press conference in January, the deputy chief of staff of the Turkish army, General Ilker Basbug, warned that "Iraq's future might be very bloody if there was a federal structure, especially based on ethnicity."

more at
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040216-588398,00.html

[dArKeR]

1. "Ethnic grudges" - What do you call what American Repukes just did to them

AWOL has set us up for terrorism by butchering so many innocent Afghans and Iraqis.

[AliceWonderland]

2. How many ways does this article

make me want to toss the computer out the window into the newly fallen snow? Ah, so many. How about the unquestioned use of the word "self-rule" when the term is meaningless? Iraq will not be allowed to rule itself; one could argue that it has been so destabilized that self-rule has been guaranteed a failure, a by-product of decades of war, violence, and brutal rule by an at-least-he's-our-son-of-a-bitch. But oh well, now Bush is a FAN of the UN and wants it to come up with a PLAN. That way, when it fails, it's the UN's fault, of course. As far as I'm concerned, if you dumped the depleted uranium, YOU are the one to fix it. I also like the unquestioned use of the Zinni quote, suggesting that anyone who opposes US rule, or wants the US to fail in Iraq, MUST be a "jihadist." Whatever that term is supposed to mean from moment to moment. Yeesh.

[Skittles]

3. START to unravel ??????????????????

what the f*** has been going on? Or were 530 dead soldiers and thousands of dead Iraqi civilians part of the PLAN ?????????????

[dArKeR]

4. "Ethnic grudges" - AWOL doesn't consider the dead civilians worth of being

counted or burried properly. Imagine if our positions were reversed and what Rat Robertson and Scary Falwell would say.

[lebkuchen]

6. Think "USSR/Afghanistan"

Repeat process.

[Fovea]

9. Yeah, my first thought was

:wtf:

[aquart]

5. "Three theocratic states." Yippeee!

I love it when people kill each other and leave us alone.

Oh, wait. That'll be bad for the oil companies won't it?

Is Turkey NATO? Do we have to fight on their side? Will Europe come in on this turkey shoot?

How does China feel about it? India? Pakistan? George Bush, he started World War III but he thought we'd like it.

I hate the way people pick on the Kurds. All the liberals bleeding for the poor pitiful Palestinians but not one of them is home for the Kurds.

I like Kurds. I met one once and was charmed.

[Karenina]

7. LOL! Iraq's so already unraveled!

*Let's see *dimbulb unravel nice and quick. Maybe we'd get a chance in hell to stop the downward spiral. Hey, I'm an optimist! :silly:

[Snappy]

8. Liberated.

If Iraq was liberated why is the US and it's allies still occupying Iraq?