Sunni Radicals seek Islamic Republic (Iraq - Juan Cole)

[Starfury]

From Monday's Juan Cole:

The radical Salafis in Iraq, led by the Holy Warriors' Consultative Council (Mujahidin Shura Council), appear to have endorsed the goal of a Islamic Republic in the Sunni Arab heartland of the country "after the Kurds establish their own state in the north and after the Shiite rejectionists have established their confederacy of the middle and the south, with the help of the Jews of the north and the Safavids of the south ." The proposal therefore seems to be a direct response to the parliamentary vote last week wherein the Shiite majority and its Kurdish allies rammed through a law allowing the formation of further provincial confederacies. Sunni Arab parties mostly oppose such confederacies, favoring instead a strong central government, but the Shiites voted while they were boycotting parliament and so they were denied even a chance to debate the issue.

The internet video said that the new state should "encompass the governates of Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala, Kirkuk, Salahedddin, Nineveh and parts of Babel and Wasit," and called for Sunnis to pledge allegiance to Shaikh Abu Omar al-Baghdadi as the leader of the proposed fundamentalist republic.

Oh, wonderful. Now the Sunni Arab fundamentalists want oil-rich Kirkuk to be part of their state. The Kurds also want it, as do the Turkmen. That is going to be a pretty picture.

The videotape affirmed, "Our ancestors built the Baghdad of al-Rashid and the Caliphate, and they will never go out of our hands save over our dead bodies."

Yeah, I'm thinking this isn't going to end well...

http://www.juancole.com/2006/10/bloodbath-in-kirkuk-sunni-radicals.html

[eleny]

1. And James Baker thinks he's going to come up with some recommendations

[Auntie Bush]

2. How could one man's son cause so much

death and destruction in this world. Poppy must be so proud.

I hold Poppy responsible too. He should have thought of his country first and warned the world what an irresponsible deranged son he produced.

[welshTerrier2]

3. it's all pretty simple really ...

Iraq has oil ... the warring factions in Iraq are totally unable to reach any accord about how to share the oil ... that right there is bad enough to sustain perpetual civil war ... but it's much worse than that ...

the Iraqi factions are not the only hands in the cookie jar ... add to them Big Oil supported by the US military to do their dirty work for them ... Big Oil is in the process of trying to lock-up a deal that will give them almost total control over Iraqi oil ... that leaves very little for the Iraqis to fight over ... and so the war we see today is going to get much worse after December ... that's when the Iraqis are going to be hard squeezed to sign away their oil rights to Big Oil ... when they refuse, bush is going to topple the Iraqi government ... when that happens, all bets are off ... the war will rapidly intensify and the US will become the target ...

the only role the US is playing in Iraq is that of greedy imperialists ... people of conscience need to push for immediate withdrawal ... staying, no matter how noble your intent, is doing nothing but backing the great oil grab ...