While most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, the guerrillas reject Islamic fundamentalism. Instead, they trace their roots to a Marxist past and still espouse what they call "scientific socialism" and promote women's rights.
In Iraq, Conflict Simmers on a 2nd Kurdish Front (click here)
...Yet out of the public eye, a chillingly similar battle has been under way on the Iraqi border with Iran. Kurdish guerrillas ambush and kill Iranian forces and retreat to their hide-outs in Iraq. The Americans offer Iran little sympathy. Tehran even says Washington aids the Iranian guerrillas, a charge the United States denies. True or not, that conflict, like the Turkish one, has explosive potential....
WHILE ON THE Eastern border of Northern Iraq the Kurds are viewed as a threat to Turkey, AT THE VERY SAME TIME, they are viewed as insurgents in Iran to the western border. Can the USA make up it's mind? No. Because Bush turned loose Pandora's Box and what do we know about this type of leadership? They are incompetent. They want money out of the deal so they literally allow anarchy otherwise. Bush was never interested in the people of Iraq. That IS his excuse now no different than protection of the American people were an excuse in March of 2003.
I don't care of a Kurd calls themselves PKK or not. This is a nation of people under seige for most of their lives. The best break they ever had was "The Norhtern No Fly Zone' where they established a democracy, admired the values of the USA and it's freedom and organized a government. The Kurds are ready to be their own nation. The issue is not that they can't defend their borders, they can. Easily, to the tune of being called terrorists. The problem is they want to unite ALL KURDS into a nation that would include parts of Turkey and Iran.
That's the issue. This is NOT about terrorism. It's about sovereignty and the right of Kurds to be united and be a nation. That is what is at the heart of these conflicts. The reason they are given such a rough time to achieve that is because it would cause issues with sovereignty of Iran and Turkey. So, why not make the northern Province of Iraq into a Kurdistan province and leave them alone? Why? Because Turkey would love to have the national assets in that territory under their control and destroy any right to the people there to have their own soveriegn authority.
Turkey is wrong on all counts in this issue except for it's sovereign right to protect it's borders. End of discussion.
I'll tell you how stupid this mess has gotten...in an article in RIA Novosti last week the Russian President, in an attempt to contain the Bush potential to expand the Iraq war into surrounding nations, criticized the fact there are now three provinces allowed in the Iraq Constitution. That provision has been there for well over two years now. The provinces are taking up their own border controls, building walls and all sorts of preparedness including accepting their militias as an opportunity to stability.
President Putin is right in that the more division there is within a country the more opportunity for civil war. That is classic textbook theory. He's right. Under normal circumstances a nation divided is going to be incredibly unstable. That is not the case in Iraq. Iraq is the 'hub' of Islamic fundamentalism. There are too many 'powers' (not spiritual either) at play in Iraq to consider a single sovereign government a potential to stability. Too many factions, too many fears, too many human rights abuses and they are all pointing fingers at each other as a threat to SURVIVAL.
The civil war in Iraq is not about economics or power struggles for politics. We would love a political solution for them, but, it isn't going to happen.
Iraq is about fear. It's about losing religion. It is about how strong the Shia can be as a nation of 'people' and NOT laws to protect their very existance on Earth. The Shia are granted the 'right' to fear because of the damage of their religious lineage over decades of Western pandering to Sunni leaders to the sake of oil.
Iraq needs to have autonomy in their provinces so the people feel safe. It's got to happen. There is no way for the Central Governing Authority within Iraq to be established so long as there is overwhelming fear of them. In listening to Iraqi leadership in Baghdad speak today, they have finally come to grips with that fear and are listening and attempting to instill a 'quiet' among their people. All their people. We have to allow the people of Iraq to be separate while sharing national assets. There is only one way to do that and that is to provide them separate provinces and a central authority. Trying now to reverse that won't work, not under the best of 'textbook' conditions.
The people of the USA aren't going to allow Bush to expand his war. The USA troops have to come out of Iraq. There is no way they can stay there and provide a peace for that nation. There is too much 'fire power' within a country the size of Texas to think there will ever be a calm. No way. The munitions have to come out of that country and it should happen as soon as possible. So long as the USA is in Iraq, there will be cooperation by Iran with Shi'ites in the way of arms and humanitarian needs to prevent a spill over into their nation from Iraq.
Do you realize the size of the refugee movement there would be into Iran if it weren't actively involved in Iraq? Do you know how much more destabilizing it would be. The USA has to leave Iraq in order to stop the war. It's never going to stop otherwise. Believe it or not, the politics of Bush and Cheney and Rice about Iran harness the fear of the nuclear reactor. Iran is doing the right thing in Iraq otherwise they would be fighting the American war within their country as well.
The nuclear reactor won't be consented to be dismantled as with North Korea until Iran feels it doesn't now have the same threat facing it. South Korea doesn't have a nuclear weapon. Neither does Japan. However, Israel does and Olmert already stated it. The entire dynamics in the Middle East is so screwed up, it's unbelievable. Israel can't give up it's nuclear potential because of nations such as Pakistan. It's a mess and the ONLY way to a lasting peace is to engage the nations of the region in summits leading to peace and ultimately disarmament. Bush and the Republicans aren't capable of that. Their electorate only sees destruction of Islam the viable solution to American National Security. It's hideous. Islam is not the enemy, Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda are and the USA isn't even in Afghanistan anymore.
No, Vladimir Putin is NOT right in demanding ONLY a 'one government' strategy in Iraq no matter the textbook correctness of it all. It won't work, except to keep the killing and destructive USA depleted within Iraq. To THAT end it is a solution, but, to a stable region WITHOUT genocide of the Shia it is not a solution.
Turkey needs to stay in Turkey. End of Discussion !!!! The Kurds need a homeland in northern Iraq and the Shia need to stop being killed. Iran needs to dismantle it's nuclear reactor and the stronger the sanctions so the people of Iran feel it everyday in their lives the sooner they will return to moderate and reasonable leadership.
LOADED UP: Turkish troops in Cizre head toward the Iraqi border. Turkey threatened to launch an offensive after 12 of its soldiers were killed by Kurdish separatists over the weekend.
PKK says it will stop cross-border attacks from northern Iraq if Ankara drops threats of an offensive there.
