A SOLUTION for W's IRAQ BOONDOGGLE

MONDAY, MAY 29, 2006

A SOLUTION for W's IRAQ BOONDOGGLE

W's idiotic, neocon rightwing-Christian ideologically-driven boondoggle in Iraq will be left to his successor to clean up ......... W said so, himself.

Any viable solution to the W-caused destabilization of Iraq MUST include the awareness of a major reality which has so far been ignored by the Western powers:

THERE IS NO SUCH NATION AS IRAQ in any meaningful historical perspective. Try to find it on a map created before WWI.

Iraq (Mesopotamia) was a creation of the European powers following the demise of the Ottoman Empire (the Turks who controlled much of the Middle East for centuries) after WWI because the OE sided with Germany and the losing side in the Great War. The Europeans in WWI encouraged an Arab Nationalism (remember Lawrence of Arabia???) to join them in fighting the Turkish Ottomans which had replaced the Arab Caliphate successors of the Prophet Mohammed's Islamic Empire. The Turks were the "occupiers" of Arab regions from which the Europeans promised deliverance.

Instead, the Europeans messed up the Middle East (just like they did Africa) by establishing borders for their creations, colonies and mandates which suited the European interests, and had little or nothing to do with the allegiances and any nascent sense of nationhood of the peoples who live in these regions.

Ethnic, religious, and language groups who have been mortal enemies for centuries found themselves grouped together within political boundaries which make no sense regarding the sane formation of a modern nation-state.

Iraq is a prime example of the European notion of its own cultural and religious superiority, a notion today dominant in the NeoCon Project for a New American Century(PNAC) which infuses the W administration with its hubris.

Iraq has three mutually hostile main groups: The Sunni Arab Muslims in the central and western regions, The Shia Arab Muslims in the east who are theologically aligned with the Iranians (Persians who speak farsi, not Arabic) and the poor Kurds ( the MOST sympathetic group to the West) who have found themselves divided up in parts of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran and equally hated by all three, and who are a distinct ethnic group with their own language.

The theological divide between the Sunni and Shia is older and more bitter than the Catholic-Protestant schism which engendered so many wars in Europe. The Sunni-Shia schism centers around different claims for the "true" lineage of the Prophet Mohammed's rightful successors.

Just imagine in the Christian world to ask Protestants to accept a government dominated by radical papists, or Catholics to accept a government dominated by Protestants who profess that the Holy Father is the AntiChrist. This should give you a greater appreciation of our system of separation of church and state. A secular government in the Christian world has proven to be a successful model, but in the Islamic world, there is no such thing ...... The government MUST be Islamic to be legitimate, and the Sunni-Shia divide over what is the true heritage of Islam is irreconcilable.

For W and his ignoramus crew to think a nation-state in which one of these Islamic groups is a significant minority could ever be stable by western terms is an idiocy beyond measure. The Sunni are the minority in Iraq, but wielded power under Saddam. The Shia are going to have their payback, no matter how long it takes. The Kurds want to be left alone and harbor desires to have their own country ........ And the USA will double-cross them again because Turkey has a huge Kurdish minority which would proclaim itself part of any independent Kurdistan, and the Turks are our needed allies.

SOLUTION to get Americans soldiers out of there and leave behind some semblance of stability:
Abandon W's foolish notion of an effective national government for all of Iraq, because the minority in it will be in a constant state of insurgency against the majority.

The only type of effective central government over regions with different religions, customs and languages is a TOTALITARIAN REGIME ......... There was a relative stability in Iraq under Saddam.

The former USSR kept order by a repressive regime ...... And when it collapsed the result was a fragmentation into so many different "republics" with strange names I defy you to name them all. And the multi-ethnic genocide in the former Yugoslavia began after the totalitarian regime collapsed. W's war has destabilized Iraq and placed our soldiers in harm's way between religious-political factions who are mortal enemies.

CREATE a CONFEDERATION of three Autonomous Regions ....... Kurdish, Sunni, and Shia .... Within which they have virtual total power over internal and cultural affairs. The Central Government ........ say under a UN mandate (of course dominated by USA interests) ....... will be in charge of Foreign Relations and the marketing of the country's oil resources and distributing the proceeds to the three regions.

The western powers should train up security forces that must remain in their own regions and whose primary function is the protection of the minorities in their regions and the guarantee of safe travel for individuals and secure transport for commerce. Western powers will guarantee no foreign invasions of Iraq or the incursion of one autonomous region into another.

The Western powers should also fund the relocation of minority populations in the three regions if any want to move (this will be cheaper by far than the current misguided course).

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