Iraqi Civil War question

[Che_Nuevara]

Can anyone give me an informed opinion?


.. Where are the Kurds likely to line up in this? Everyone's been saying 'Shi'ite vs. Sunni', 'Sunni vs. Shi'ite' ... the Kurds are still there. What will they do?

[madrchsod]

1. i think they are waiting to see who wins

the iraqi`s are weary of the intentions of the kurdish politions. the kurds control the richest oil fields in iraq and are probably the usa favorites to rule iraq or take the land the kurds control into a semi-autonomous state. it`s going to be a long process before anything is truly settled in iraq

[madrchsod]

2. here is one iraqi`s take on the situation

http://afreeiraqi.blogspot.com/
Free Iraqi

if you are interested in iraq check the sites this and other blogger have links to. i have over 10 links that i read everyday because it`s the only decent news about what is happening on the ground and their various neighborhoods

[The Magistrate]

3. Basically, Sir, Against Everyone Else

Kurds are Sunni, but not Arab. They consider themselves as a general matter somewhat superior to the rest, in the traditional view of mountaineers towards the folk of the plains. In the days of Ottoman rule, they frequently served as enforcers against the Arabs. The bad blood is pretty old, and reciprocal. For as long as Iraq has had existence in the modern day, Kurds have been trying to break free of control from Baghdad: a principal activity of English military forces there eighty years ago was suppression of this, and it has not really ever stopped.

Kurds want independence. Neither Shia Arab nor Sunni Arab wish to see this occur, as a good deal of Iraq's oil is in the borderland of the Kurdish areas, round Mosul and Kirkuk. With Kurdish independence, this would be gone. Kurds want Arabs out of their areas, and there is already a great deal of violence directed at this going on. There is dislike for Shia on sectarian grounds, and for Sunni Arabs because these have been till lately the central government, that has behaved murderously towards the Kurds. There are further a tremendous number of tribe and clan divisions within the Kurdish peopel, which often have hostile relations with one another, and it is generally possible for a foreign element to find at least some Kurdish faction willing to assist it by attacks against other Kurds it hates for purely local reasons.

In short, whoever is in charge of the central government, a substantial body of Kurds will oppose, and this will continue to be the case until there is either an independent Kurdistan, or Kurds manage to actually gain control of the central government themselves. For a variety of reasons, neither of these prospects is very likely. No neighboring state wants Kurdish indepenedence, and Turkey in particular would move heaven and earth against it. A serious Kurdish bid for central power would largely unite the Arabs, whatever their confessional differences.

[kentuck]

4. They've been sucking up tot he American dollars for years....

They don't give a crap about the Sunnis or the Shias.

[Che_Nuevara]

5. Thanks everyone! (n/t)