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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CalculatedRisk who wrote (53447)	12/28/2005 12:25:07 PM
From: TigerPaw	Respond to of 361437

One of the hazards of posting in stolen moments is addressing the post to the wrong person. TP

To: CalculatedRisk who wrote (53447)	12/28/2005 4:35:11 PM
From: SiouxPal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361437

Here's what I'm going to do. Not post about Israel any more. :•)

To: CalculatedRisk who wrote (53447)	12/28/2005 4:53:38 PM
From: SiouxPal	Respond to of 361437

10,000 Kurds In Iraqi Army Ready To Fight In Civil War by georgia10 Wed Dec 28, 2005 at 08:26:47 AM PDT From Knight Ridder News Service, this sad and disturbing news: KIRKUK, Iraq - Kurdish leaders have inserted more than 10,000 of their militia members into Iraqi army divisions in northern Iraq to lay the groundwork to swarm south, seize the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and possibly half of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, and secure the borders of an independent Kurdistan. Five days of interviews with Kurdish leaders and troops in the region suggest that U.S. plans to bring unity to Iraq before withdrawing American troops by training and equipping a national army aren't gaining traction. Instead, some troops who are formally under U.S. and Iraqi national command are preparing to protect territory and ethnic and religious interests in the event of Iraq's fragmentation, which many of them think is inevitable. The soldiers said that while they wore Iraqi army uniforms they still considered themselves members of the Peshmerga -- the Kurdish militia -- and were awaiting orders from Kurdish leaders to break ranks. Many said they wouldn't hesitate to kill their Iraqi army comrades, especially Arabs, if a fight for an independent Kurdistan erupted. The administration has made much about the transfer of power in villages and cities throughout Iraq. But are we just making the situation worse? The interviews with Kurdish troops, however, suggested that as the American military transfers more bases and areas of control to Iraqi units, it may be handing the nation to militias that are bent more on advancing ethnic and religious interests than on defeating the insurgency and preserving national unity. The first hint that the Kurds still viewed themselves as an independent and autonomous entity was when they entered into Iraq's first oil contract--without notifying the central government. The fear at the time was that the profits from the contract would be used to arm a strong Kurdish militia, which eventually would rise up with Kurds from Turkey, Iran, and Syria to form an independent state. The desire for an independent state is in the Kurds' blood. I recall a few years ago, I was spending my summer on a small Greek island in the eastern Mediterranean. One day, I woke to the whole village being aflutter. It turned out that a boatload of Kurdish refugees had come ashore. For nearly a week, the village cared for the men, women, and children on the boat. We gave them food and clothes, and through a translator, heard their story. They fled from Turkey. And cried for Kurdistan, a state where they would not be the minority any longer. We are entering a dangerous phase in Iraq. Each faction sees opportunity in the instability, opportunity to achieve goals and objectives they have carried long in their hearts. The terrifying reality is that they are prepared to act outside the democratic process we established in order to achieve those goals: ''We will do our best diplomatically, and if that fails we will use force'' to secure borders for an independent Kurdistan, [Jafar Mustafir, a close advisor to Iraq's Kurdish interim president] said. ``The government in Baghdad will be too weak to use force against the will of the Kurdish people.'' Make no mistake, Iraq will be the main issue in 2006. This latest news is just another hint at what Iraq will be facing then. And yet, the Democrats still refuse to add Iraq to their 2006 agenda. If the Kurdish militia breaks ranks before the midterms, and Iraq becomes synonymous with hell, what then? Will we scramble then to find a solution? Will we pretend like no one knew it was coming? Or will we finally make the call the bring the troops home? Whatever choice we make then, it will be one made too late. dailykos.com