Discussion for article #224330
We should have split Iraq into 3 countries rather than pander to Turkey, who considers a Kurdish state a threat. But Turkey would not even allow the U.S. to use their airspace in the war. An obstructive ally like Turkey deserved no consideration when designing a stable solution for Iraq.
So says the last prime minister of what was once a place called ‘Iraq’.
How did this generation of national leaders escape learning basic politics? Just like in Ukraine, they’re so busy screwing each other they fail to notice the more serious state next door.
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(I’m talking about the creation of power vacuums on the borders of aggressive political outreachers. Are they still denying the Holocaust? Certainly should have taken Sister Lucy’s History class.)
To those of you old enough to remember, this is now sounding EXACTLY like Vietnam in 1975.
US Got the Hell Out just a few years ago: Check
Highly Corrupt puppet Government that oppresses the majority and is unwilling to share power: Check
US unwilling to step back into the quagmire and lose more blood and treasure: Check
Army of the opposition supported by outside players on the march to the capital: Check
Corrupt local army dropping their weapons an fleeing in droves: Check
Howling Neo-Cons predicting DOOM! DOOM I TELL YOU! if we don’t “go back in and FORCE stability” at the end of a bayonet: Check
Been there, done that. Now I just wait for the iconic photos of the Helicopter at the top of the US Embassy as desperate final few people try to escape the onslaught.
Oh well, in 20 years they will be making tennis shoes for us.
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“Iraqi PM Rejects Calls To Form Unity Government” 6/25/14
“Iraq Wants The U.S. Out: Prime Minister Insists All Troops Must Leave” 12/28/10
Are we listening ?
Apparently, al-Maliki plans to continue fiddling while Iraq burns. Again.
Knowing all the things I know now, I interpret that as more of a reason we should have never done this in the first place. Turkey, France, and Germany, all of the allies who “stabbed us in the back” at the time, knew better than us, but we (or, rather, the Bush Administration leading us) didn’t listen.
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If the PM of Iraq doesn’t want to share power for a better government why should America spill more blood defending that pile of sand.
I fully expect that Iraq will be over run with the exception of the border area with Iran within the next few months. America needs to stay out of this.
It’s hard to believe there isn’t either 1) a majority among the 2/3 not in his party who are willing to form a coalition, or 2) some general in the army willing to stage a coup and kick him out.
Big difference here. The Shiites are by far the majority in Iraq – 65% to 32% Sunni – yet the Sunni, until Saddam was gone, have ruled the Shia, excluding them from power, both political and economic. All the stories I’'ve read seem to ignore this fact, which, I believe, has a lot to do with the Shia’s obstinancy.