Iraq: Divided and Disintegrating
Iraq is disintegrating faster than ever. The Turkish army invaded the north of the country last week and is still there. Iraqi Kurdistan is becoming like Gaza where Israel can send in its tanks and helicopters at will.
The US, so sensitive to any threat to Iraqi sovereignty from Iran or Syria, has blandly consented to the Turkish attack on the one part of Iraq which was at peace. The Turkish government piously claims that its army is in pursuit of PKK Turkish Kurd guerrillas, but it is unlikely to inflict serious damage on them as they hide in long-prepared bunkers and deep ravines of the Kurdish mountains. What the Turkish incursion is doing is weakening the Kurdistan Regional Government, the autonomous Kurdish zone, the creation of which is one of the few concrete achievements of the US and British invasion of Iraq five years ago.
One of the most extraordinary developments in the Iraqi war has been the success with which the White House has been able to persuade so much of the political and media establishment in the US that, by means of “the Surge”, an extra 30,000 US troops, it is on the verge of political and military success in Iraq. All that is needed now, argue US generals, is political reconciliation between the Iraqi communities.
Few demands could be more hypocritical. American success in reducing the level of violence over the last year has happened precisely because Iraqis are so divided. The Sunni Arabs of Iraq were the heart of the rebellion against the American occupation. In fighting the US forces, they were highly successful. But in 2006, after the bombing of the Shia shrine at Samarra, Baghdad and central Iraq was wracked by a savage civil war between Shia and Sunni. In some months the bodies of 3,000 civilians were found, and many others lie buried in the desert or disappeared into the river. I do not know an Iraqi family that did not lose a relative, and usually more than one.
The Shia won this civil war. By the end of 2006 they held three quarters of Baghdad. The Sunni rebels, fighting the Mehdi Army Shia militia and the Shia, dominated the Iraqi army and police, and also under pressure from al Qa’ida, decided to end their war with US forces. They formed al-Sahwa, the Awakening movement, which is now allied to and paid for by the US.
In effect Iraq now has an 80,000 strong Sunni militia which does not hide its contempt for the Iraqi government, which it claims is dominated by Iranian controlled militias. The former anti-American guerrillas have largely joined al-Sahwa. The Shia majority, for its part, is determined not to let the Sunni win back their control of the Iraqi state. Power is more fragmented than ever.
This all may sound like good news for America. For the moment its casualties are down. Fewer Iraqi civilians are being slaughtered. But the Sunni have not fallen in love with the occupation. The fundamental weakness of the US position in Iraq remains its lack of reliable allies outside Kurdistan. At one moment, British officers used to lecture their American counterparts, much to their irritation, about the British Army’s rich experience of successful counter-insurgency warfare in Malaya and Northern Ireland. “That showed a fundamental misunderstanding of Iraq on our part,” a former British officer in Basra told me in exasperation. “In Malaya the guerrillas all came from the minority Chinese community and in Northern Ireland from the minority Roman Catholics. Basra was exactly the opposite. The majority supported our enemies. We had no friends there.”
This lack of allies may not be so immediately obvious in Baghdad and central Iraq because both Shia and Sunni are willing and at times eager to make tactical alliances with US forces. But in the long term neither Sunni nor Shia Arab want the Americans to stay in Iraq. Hitherto the only reliable American allies have been the Kurds, who are now discovering that Washington is not going to protect them against Turkey.
Very little is holding Iraq together. The government is marooned in the Green Zone. Having declared the Surge a great success, the US military commanders need just as many troops to maintain a semblance of control now as they did before the Surge. The mainly Shia police force regards al-Sahwa as anti-government guerrillas wearing new uniforms.
The Turkish invasion should have given the government in Baghdad a chance to defend Iraq’s territorial integrity and burnish its patriotic credentials. Instead the prime minister Nouri al-Maliki has chosen this moment to have his regular medical check up in London, a visit which his colleagues say is simply an excuse to escape Baghdad. Behind him he has left a country which is visibly falling apart.
Middle East correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent, Patrick Cockburn was awarded the 2005 Martha Gellhorn prize for war reporting. His book on his years covering the war in Iraq, The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq (Verso) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for non-fiction.
© 2008 independent.co.uk
Bush is hoping the “Surge” will prevent withdrawal on his watch, so his successor(s) will take the blame when the occupation falls apart. However, our friends the Turks have the power to cause disaster immediately. As Tom Lehrer sang of the French in 1965, “They’re on our side…I believe.”
Do those people in Washington even *want* a unified Iraq? They certainly were content with the break-up of Yugoslavia, weren’t they?
We (the U.S.) and our poodles the British do not really want a unified Iraq. What we do best is divide and rule. It has served our Imperial quests for 500 years. There is no reason to ‘change’ the game plan and suddenly empower some rag-tag ethnic minority (the Kurds). Helping Turkey helps us in our mission of long-term control of Iraq. The rest is irrelevant.
“…Iraq is disintegrating faster than ever…”
Mission Accomplished…Heckuva-job-Bushie…
Now the OIL Companies can move in and do some REAL rapin’, pillagin’ an theivin’…
Made in the good ole’ US-of-A…
PS: Oh I nearly forgot, some killin’ too…
What “unified iraq”? Patrick Coburn needs to more seriously pay attention to what has been going on in that place for the past 5 years because he is starting to sound like a propagandist for the Republican National Committee..
For those of you that think that Iraq is an example of the ultimate screwed up mess (and that George W. Bush and company is stupid) you need to read Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism”.
Why do you think that the US has been cooperating with the Turks hand in glove diplomaticaly, militarily, and with the sharing of intel? Let’s just say that this is “The Surge, Act II”. It turns out to take a lot more oomph to kill Iraqi soveriegnty than was origianlly thought.
“Patrick Coburn needs to more seriously pay attention to what has been going on in that place for the past 5 years becasue he is starting to sound like a propagandist for the Republican National committee.”
Patrick Coburn has been based in Baghdad throughout the Occupation. He is a very brave and trustworthy journalist of the highest calibre.
I would be willing to bet that the headline wasn’t Mr. Coburn’s. That is the kind of error an editor thousands of miles a way would make
Iraq, like Yugoslavia and Pakistan is an artificial creation. Lawrence of Arabia promised the Kurds a nation of their own in WWI. The UK and France instead created “Mandates” so that they could exploit the area. Iraq never should have come into existence. However, I wanted a peaceful disintegration of both Iraq and Yugoslavia, done without US interference. Nation building, by both Clinton and Bush is wrong.
By the way, the Kurds in Iraq are “Good” Kurds and those in Turkey are “Bad” Kurds.
What is missed is that we promised the Turks we would keep the PKK TERRORISTS(not rebels -TERRORISTS) under control and prevent any problems. Last year, if anyone cares to look, the Turks after 4+ years of asking, asking, asking for help to stop the increase in PKK terror acts killing Turkish civilians and police guarding them, drew a line in the sand.
The US and Iraq at the highest levels promised help and prevention - which did NOT happen at that time - even with Turkish troops at the border.
The Iraqis(Kurds and others) have done nothing to stop the terrorism committed by the PKK since then - I personally feel that after 5 years of promises that amounted to hot air accompanied by terrorist act after terrorist act killing Turkish citizens, the Turks just ran out of patience. The US bears responsibility by having failed to protect the security of peoples affected by the invasion(illegal) of Iraq.
I do not think the US would hesitate for a minute invading Canada or Mexico if they were turning a blind eye to Latino or Canuck terrorists based there and crossing the border to terrorize the population by killings ostensibly to protect their own.
Think about it.
Rather unfocused and what is the point? That Iraq is divided? Hardly news. That there are 80000 Sunni now aligned, for the present, with the U.S. Not news. Not much of a point that makes news or sense anyshere in the article. How does he know the invasion will be useless? No one knows that or can know it.
>What is missed is that we promised the Turks we would keep the PKK TERRORISTS(not rebels -TERRORISTS) under control and prevent any problems.<
Actually, what determined whether or not a Kurd was/is a terrorist before 2003 is what side of the border he was on. If he was on the Iraq side of the border fighting Saddam, he was a “freedom fighter” (unless it was during the Iraq-Iran War, when we wanted Saddam to win). If he was on the Turkish side of the border attacking the Turkish army he was a “terrorist.” Turkey warned us about supporting the de facto independent Kurdish state in the 1990s, saying it would only encourage independence movements in Turkey. In a typical U.S. foreign policy blunder, we ignored them, confident that we could micromanage the Kurds and use them for our purposes with no serious repercussions. As the events of recent days have proved, we were, as usual, wrong.
Iraq was one of the worst creations from the post WW1 re-ordering (Yugoslavia was another) that would always require an odious strongman to keep the imposed structure together. Once said latest odious strongman was removed, a disintegration was merely a matter of time. Now what remains to be seen is how the region will re-order itself.
You can take whatever Patrick Cockburn says to the bank; he’s absolutely reliable.
The account pretty much lines up with other reports out of Iraq so I see no reason to question the writers ‘lack of attention’ or his reliability. That the ’surge’ has held down the violence should never have been doubted, really, how much less violence would there be if, rather than 30k, 300k more troops were added? Fundamental stuff. Many other reporters have filed similar stories to this. Joe Biden has just returned from the area and substantiates much of this account. Now insane McCain must know basically the same thing so how can he hang his campaign on the improving situation and sleep at night? It is a powder keg and he is sitting on top of it. OK by me but what the hell is he thinking?
HA! Patriotic govt in Baghdad, since overthrowing Saddam Hussein? You’re joking!
It’s NO patriotic govt; it’s the puppet govt of the USA, and the USA is NOT part of Iraq! And al-Maliki going to London for any reason again shows that the Iraqi govt is not an Iraqi govt, but the US puppet regime in Iraq.
That obviously indicates what I think of pax4all’s post.
” pax4all February 27th, 2008 7:17 pm
You can take whatever Patrick Cockburn says to the bank; he’s absolutely reliable.”
And in addition to the above reflecting what I think of claims about PC being ‘absolutely reliable’, pax4all is in NO position to be able to say such a thing. He or she has never set foot in Iraq, and most likely nowhere near it.
PC is apparently very reliable, and I’ve appreciated plenty of articles I’ve read by him on Iraq; but ‘absolutely’ is not something “Americans” can vouch for. We’d need to either:
a) be witness, first-hand, to what he says or describes or claims; or,
b) have a number of other respectable reporters reporting as he does.
Note that I’m not meaning to say that I doubt what PC has presented with this article; I certainly believe him, though not about the govt in Iraq being one that can be justly referred to as ‘patriotic’.
Very reliable, yes, indeed evidently; as is also Dahr Jamail and his IPS co-reporters. All of these reporters have struck me as good on Iraq, and Jamail also did very good or excellent reporting on the (US+)Israel war of aggression on Lebanon in 2006; only know of his reporting on these two topics, so not being able to speak on anything else he may sometimes have reported on.
In an email to Jamail over the past few years ago, closer to two to three, I believe, I told him that the Kurds would most surely come to regret the day they ever sided with the US in this hellbent war of aggression on Iraq. I have not been keeping this in my mind as if wanting it to happen or expecting it to start to happen at any particular time, but expected the day would surely come, nonetheless.
Are they yet regretting, now? I don’t know, but what PC describes sure indicates that if it’s not yet, then the day is approaching at surely faster pace than before.
Anyone who sides with psychopathic murderers is bound to eventually come to regret the day such a position was chosen, I figure. Anyone who childishly or naively thought that the Bush administration and the real ruling elites behind this and other US wars of aggression would [care] about the Kurds is a FOOL. Well, not entirely, but this depends on how we understand the word ‘care’.
They “cared” to have the Kurds on the US side for quite a while, years, for this strategically would be beneficial; it’d mean considerably fewer fierce, or determined, resistance fighters against the West’s psychopathic aggressors and invaders. And that’s obviously not about really caring for the Kurds; it instead is a totally selfish matter. It’s ruthless, callous, and a con game.
However, what does not make strategic sense to me is allowing Turkey to invade northern Iraq to attack the Kurds, for the US is not so strong in Iraq that the strategists of this war of aggression can really afford to now let the Kurds become bitter resistance. But then insane people make insane decisions, and those are not [intelligent].
Perhaps there is a secret plan for Turkey to take over the north and to gain control over Kurdistan such that if this “succeeds”, then there won’t be a rising of Kurdish resistance against the West’s hellbent invasion. Maybe?
If not, then letting this happen in the north does not make competent strategic criminal sense. But it sure seems to be likely enough what’s in the plans, if Turkey is really going after Kurdish fighters, which is what evidently is being attempted.
The West’s real rulers want the oil, and where is it located in Iraq? Mostly in the south and north! By letting or having Turkey invade like this, with an ultimate goal of eliminating any possibly strong Kurdish resistance against the oil-grabbers, Turkey surely will not stand in the way and the oil-grabbers will gain their demented desire for control of the northern oil reserves.
Like Saddam Hussein said in 2003 and about this war of aggression and invasion, hell was being unleashed upon [IRAQ] and really meaning all of it. Or he said that the war and invasion was [Satan], whichever of the two it was, while they mean the same thing anyway.
Well, hell is something to NEVER invite; it instead is to [always] be resisted. The Kurdish north sided with hell and have begun to find out what such choices amount to when they are the far smaller military force.
Iraqis needed to UNITE, but couldn’t get over their historically rooted hatreds, and still can’t.
Oh well, I don’t feel bad or particularly sad for the political goons of Kurdistan, but definitely do feel bad for the Kurds, for many of them have been always opposed to this hellbent war of aggression and invasion. Many of them were also iron-fistedly oppressed or repressed by their provincial or regional govt too, the schmuck-idiot politicians they’ve been. I sure hope no harm comes to the innocent.
I also don’t wish harm to the goon and treasonous or treason-prone politicians, who were only or mostly too greedy, or selfish, and pointy-headed fools needing to WAKE the F*CK UP to [REALITY]; to “get REAL”. But I feel certainly more for the innocent who honourably have been opposed to this damn war all along, yes; definitely.
What’s the Kurdish president of the US puppet regime in Iraq now going to say and do? Will he now betray the Kurdish fighters, much like PM Nuri al-Maliki has been betraying all of Iraq? I wonder.
“Puppets on strings”!
So the primary and major oil reserves in Iraq are in the north and south, relatively little in the centre, and now the north is being locked down for the West’s oil grabbers; therefore, what’s going to happen with respect to the reserves in the south, what and when? I wonder.
If the US were concerned with Iraqi sovereignty and not the appearance of Iraqi sovereignty they would get the hell out of there. What sovereignty? When Blackwater mercenaries killed dozens of Iraqi civilians in the streets of Bagdad the Iraqis roared that Blackwater was getting kicked out of the country and they could pack up. The next day they got a call from their masters in Washington and the mercs stayed. What sovereignty? Puppets on strings for hire.
militantliberal,
Ton Lehrer? “Egypt wants to ge-et one too… just to use on you-know-who”
Sweet vintage!
Quoting from the article:
“The Sunni rebels, fighting the Mehdi Army Shia militia and the Shia, dominated the Iraqi army and police, and also under pressure from al Qa’ida, decided to end their war with US forces.”
That ‘al Qa’ida’ is most likely, if not certainly, a covert US black op. It’s what I’ve suspected for years now, but in checking the original copy of the article by Noam Chomsky posted at CD also on Feb. 27th, I found a very interesting reference to a linked article on CIA car-bomb operations, which of course are covert black ops; and that would obviously reinforce my belief that this al Qa’ida in Iraq is nothing but a covert US op.
“Tomgram: Noam Chomsky, Terrorists Wanted the World Over”, Feb. 26 2007,
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174899
QUOTE:
… “Terror” is something that, by (recent) definition, is committed by free-floating groups or movements against innocent civilians and is utterly reprehensible (unless the group turns out to be the CIA running car bombs into Baghdad or car and camel bombs into Afghanistan, in which case it’s not a topic that’s either much discussed, or condemned in our world). …
END QUOTE.
The articles on the “car bombs into Baghdad or car and camel bombs into Afghanistan” are hyperlinked in the above article.
Such covert US black ops are evidently far from unique based on what I’ve gathered over the past several years of reading, and I am therefore confident that al Qa’ida in Iraq is of this category of secret US actions and strategies.
And the reason I am adding this post is because while the real al Qa’ida might be very criminal, it’s not guilty every time some group claims to be of al Qa’ida; as has been reported by various respected reporters and analysts over the past few or several years. Cockburn, and others, referring to this so-called al Qa’ida in Iraq would do better by including a brief note on this covert US black ops likelihood, while I think it’s really a certainty.
Not providing such a clarifying note may cause naive people to believe that he is referring to the real al Qa’ida, and it’d be wrong to negligently leave people with this erroneous belief.
As a side note, I suggest that anyone believing that Obama and Billary could ever be capable of ending this war on Iraq should very carefully read the whole of the ‘car bombs into Baghdad’ article, and while I have not read the whole of it yet, I will recommend doing so, while pointing out that a quick glimpse into what I mean about Obama and Billary are full of toxic air about ending the war can be read by reading the last part of the article, which begins with:
“The “King” of Iraq (the 2000s)
“Insurgents exploded 13 car bombs across Iraq on Sunday, including eight in Baghdad within a three-hour span.”
– Associated Press news report, January 1, 2006 ”
What I am furthermore [specifically] referring to is what is said about the nature of the ‘Green Zone’.
The following excellent and strongly incriminating (for USA, NATO, and UN) overview article is about a reality that is wholly, certainly strongly anyway, fitting to consider in understanding what is planned for Iraq; including the Kurdish north and as Patrick Cockburn now reports and others have previously reported. Natural resources is not sole, but still is a BIG part of the Western imperialists’ “game plan” … EVERYWHERE, where they don’t yet have control of it anyway; and there’s relatively little to speak of in central Iraq.
“Washington gets a new colony in the Balkans
by Sara Flounders
Global Research, February 28, 2008
International Action Center - 2008-02-21″
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8185
Quoting her bio. part:
“Sara Flounders, co-director of the International Action Center, traveled to Yugoslavia during the 1999 U.S. bombing and reported on the extent of the U.S. attacks on civilian targets. She is a co-author and editor of the books: “Hidden Agenda—U.S./NATO Takeover of Yugoslavia” and “NATO in the Balkans.””
I don’t know if this will apply for most readers here, but I gained some information in the above article that I had not been previously aware of. She places some important emphasis on the Kosovo area’s richness in natural resources too, which is a considerably seldom mentioned topic about this specific imperialist-Western project (and all others).
I really can’t picture the imperialist Westerners really desiring to “share” the Kurdish north’s rich oil reserves with the Kurds; with maybe one or two or three exceptions, Kurds who’ll be used to put a “goodwill face” on this whole hellbent project.
“The surge is working, the surge is working! If only these liberals would stop trying to wrench defeat from the jaws of victory!” - Of course, the last thing the neocon gang want to see in Iraq is the reality. Thanks Mr. Cockburn for giving them a dose. We need the whole MSM to do the same thing day after day. - Now I’m the one that’s getting delusional. ha ha!