Shock waves from Fallujah

[Harmon Seaver]

   Bah -- none of these clueless idiots get it. The Shiites will start doing the
same thing as soon as it becomes clear that they're not going to get any real
election. The dimwit westerners keep talking about civil war, but the Sunnies
and Shiites aren't. They both know full well who's trying to promote that
agenda. 
   That's not to say Iraq shouldn't be broken up, it probably should, just as
the US needs to be broken up. 


On Fri, Apr 02, 2004 at 03:29:01PM -0500, R. A. Hettinga wrote:
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> National devolution proceeds apace.
> 
> Howie Carr is shocking Chris Wallace just now about partitioning Iraq
> into three countries, Kurdish (who will have oil), Shiite (who will
> have oil), and Sunni (who will not; geography's a bitch), all while
> putting a Sharon-Fence around the newly created Sunni-stan.
> 
> Kewl.
> 
> The Globe, below, doesn't know it, but they're advocating the same
> thing.
> 
> Also cool.
> 
> "The legitimate aspirations of the Kurdish and Shiite people being
> irreconcilable with a unified Iraq, the assembled signatories
> declare..."
> 
> Cheers,
> RAH
> - -------
> 
> <http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/093/editorials/Shock_waves_from_Fal
> lujahP.shtml>
> 
> The Boston Globe
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING
> 
> GLOBE EDITORIAL
> Shock waves from Fallujah
> 
> 4/2/2004
> 
>  THE SCENES of barbarism in Fallujah that have flashed around the
> world since Wednesday will reverberate in many quarters, not least
> among Iraq's Sunni Arab minority. Sunni Arabs, who predominate in
> Fallujah, belong to the group that ruled Iraq during Saddam Hussein's
> dictatorship. They now face the prospect not only of losing old
> privileges but of being dependent upon the benevolence of Shi'ites
> and Kurds, whose kin were massacred by Saddam and his agents.
> 
>  The burning and mutilation of the contract workers' bodies will
> likely affect US tactics in Fallujah and the rest of the Sunni
> Triangle. No doubt those horrific acts will also strain the patience
> of the American public with the daunting challenges of
> nation-building and democratization in Iraq. Civilians working for
> companies fulfilling contracts to rebuild Iraq's power plants, oil
> industry, roads, and other essential infrastructure may be deterred
> from continuing their work and will certainly demand more security.
> And UN officials who have been contemplating a major role for the
> world body in organizing Iraqi elections for January 2005 will have
> to question the wisdom of exposing UN workers to the kind of violence
> on display in Fallujah.
> 
>  But the principal effect of that violence inside Iraq will be to
> make the situation of the Sunni Arabs in the area around Fallujah
> even more tenuous than it has been. If the populace of the Sunni
> Triangle allows itself to be carried away with the bravado of
> Ba'athist and Islamist armed gangs -- accepting the delusion that the
> Sunnis can use guns and bombs to prevent the coming of a political
> order based on the principle of one Iraqi, one vote -- Sunnis
> themselves will stand to lose the most.
> 
>  If they frighten away UN election organizers and no legitimate
> electoral process can be safeguarded, the Sunnis will have brought
> themselves a step closer to one of the two perils most at odds with
> their interests: civil war or the split-up of Iraq.
> 
>  Americans are understandably appalled by the lynch mob horror of the
> Fallujah atrocities, but over the past few months most of the
> bombings and ambushes have been directed against Iraqis --
> particularly police, local administrators, and political figures.
> This violence signifies not simply hostility to the US occupying
> power but resistance to the advent of a democratic system that would
> deprive Sunnis of an inherent right to rule. But if Sunni mayhem
> makes it impossible to preserve the unity of the Iraqi state, Sunnis
> will end up the biggest losers. Should Iraq break into three
> countries, the Kurds in the north and the Shi'ites in the south will
> have oil; the Sunnis in their triangle will not.
> 
>  And if the bombers and assassins succeed in provoking a civil war,
> they will discover that losing a civil war is far worse than relying
> on minority rights in a constitutional democracy.
> 
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> -- 
> -----------------
> R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
> "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
> [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
> experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

-- 
Harmon Seaver	
CyberShamanix
http://www.cybershamanix.com