Momentum builds for a self-ruled southern Iraq (give Iran its biggest prize)

[sabra]

Source: AP

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) — The country's biggest Shiite party is hoping for a big win in elections across the oil-rich south to jump-start its campaign for a self-ruled region — a move that would transform Iraq and, critics say, give Iran its biggest prize since the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

To reach that goal, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council needs to win control of Najaf — which it wants as a future capital of an autonomous southern Iraq — when voters across the country choose members of ruling provincial councils Jan. 31.

But the Supreme Council faces strong opposition from other Shiite groups, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa party and followers of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Those groups fear regional self-rule, modeled after the Kurdish autonomous area in the north, would weaken Iraq, open the door to expanded Iranian influence and threaten the existence of the Iraqi state.

Zoheir al-Hakim, a senior Supreme Council official in Najaf, predicted a comfortable win in this urban center of Shiite learning about 100 miles south of Baghdad.

"Creating a region in the south is our right by law and under the constitution," al-Hakim said. "Our loyal masses will take on anyone who tries to take this right away from us."

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jtBeOmzxHTbfpUBovAmI52z0qGTgD95ODBNG0

[High Plains]

1. Funny how things work out.

[kirby]

2. Joe Biden's 3 state solution...

How many soldiers had to die to realize this is where things are heading...

[Xipe Totec]

4. Saddam Hussein was the safety-pin on the Iraq granade n/t

[iconicgnom]

3. Whatever, the US should be OUT of Iraq.

Fact: the US president LIED to the world about the pretext for the US's war or choice against Iraq.
Fact: the US war of choice against Iraq was ILLEGAL under international law.
Fact: before the US's illegal war on Iraq, Iraq had been DISARMED by the UN
Fact: the US illegal war of choice against Iraq caused 100's of 1000's of Iraqi deaths, millions of refugees, and destroyed Iraq's infrastructure. The entire war and it's aftermath has been and is a WAR CRIME. And not a little one.
Fact: in the subsequent occupation of Iraq, what was left of Iraq's civil structure, it's ability to govern itself, was totally and purposefully destroyed by the war criminals.

An analogy:
A thief who destroys a family's house and kills the family in the process of stealing a sack of jewels isn't justified, after the destruction, murders and theft, by the fact that he got away uninjured and scott free with the jewels, nor is it more or less of a crime if he got his arm blown off and discovered, while hiding out in the swamps, that the jewels were actually paste. Unfortunately, the way the Iraq war is represented by the MSM and understood by most people ignores the essential facts of the matter and focuses instead on, by analogy, the condition of the theif's arm and the authenticity of the jewels. As if these latter accidents could ever be sufficient, in themselves, basis for judging the ethics of the US action. Talk about myopic! Talk about hubris! Talk about sociopathic!

[Kip Humphrey]

5. WHO won the Arab-American War, again? The Persians, you say!???

[bstender]

6. the big winner here is Israel

fancy that