I'm one of the people who like the old things like old stories, old stuff , antiques and old places. One of the stories that I always remember is a story about three bulls, a white, a brown and a black one.
They live in a jungle with a lion. The lion wanted to eat them. He made a very smart plan, he talked to the black and the brown bulls "the white bull is very distinguished and if the man saw the white bull, he will come and take you all and kill me".
The two bulls asked him "what shall we do?" the lion said "let me eat him and we can live in peace". The two bulls agreed and they allowed the lion to eat the white bull. After a while, the lion decided to eat the brown bull, so he took the black bull a side and told him "the brown bull can be seen easily but you are not because you are black. So let me eat him and we can live in peace".
The black bull agreed and the lion ate the brown bull. After a while, the lion came and told the black bull "I'm going to eat you". The black bull said "you already ate me since you had eaten the white bull"
I just wanted to tell the story because I watch the news about the new coalitions between the different political parties. I have noticed just like everyone in Iraq that the Kurdish parties are working hard to achieve their political goals especially the dream of having an independent Kurdish state.
They use the Arabic political parties in a very clever way to achieve their goals. They break these parties into pieces by spreading them. Lately, they made an agreement with the Islamic party (the main Arabic Sunni party) and they work hard to win the hearts of al Fadhila party (Shiite party and a part of the United Iraqi Alliance, the main Shiite bloc in the parliament.
Everyone knows that the Kurdish parties are working so hard to obtain Kirkuk, the oil city because it's the key of announcing their Kurdish state which the Kurdish politicians talked about thousands time. The Arabic political parties (Sunni and Shiite parties) are playing the role of the bulls and while the lion role is played by the Kurdish parties.
Wake up guys and try to think about your parties as Iraqi parties not sects parties. To feel sorry and to blame each other will not help when it's too late to do anything. It's not late yet but it will be soon. You get your strength from your unity; otherwise, you are so weak.
This old new tale was not written by a Kurd, but most likely by a Sunni Arab who would like to enjoy some of the benefits of Kirkuk oil, or even Basra oil. So would I, although I have never been anywhere near Kirkuk or Basra. And therein lies the problem.
The British did not invent "divide and conquer", but they mastered use of the tool to subdue large native populations. In Iraq and Kenya, where violence is the continuing tragedy of colonialism, they drew lines around an area of the map, gave it a made-up name,and set up a governing body. But they purposely included several disparate ethnic groups to guarantee bickering and power struggles while they walked off with the resources.
Now people are dying in Iraq because it is easier for the oil men to control the resources of Iraq than it would be if Kurdistan, Shiastan and Sunnistan were completely independent.
Yes, after partition the Sunnis would have no oil. And the Germans no longer control the Eiffel Tower, either. So what? Surely, their Saudi friends will help Sunnistan. That's what friends are for.
Complet paratition is the only solution to the Iraq crisis.
Posted by: Marvin Sussman | January 16, 2008 at 04:12 PM
Finally George Bush and Co decide to allow the Baath party members back into government. Well, duh! When the US/Bush Gov attacked Iraq in March, 2003 and banned 32,000 civil servants, plus dissolved and criminalized an army of 2 million soldiers -- he just created 2,032,000 instant enemies against the US led liberation/occupation! Duh! Bush would have been wise (I know it's stretch) to have granted an amnesty to all these Iraqi's. After all it was Saddam and his cronies they were really after. Most Iraqi's don't care about Saddam, they care about working in peace so they can keep feeding their families. But Bush stopped that. And when you and your family are hungry and without work and some fanatic jihadist is offering you a monthly salary to join their militia - duh, what happens? If Bush and cronies thought logically they could have saved American troops lives and billions of taxpayers dollars by offering the existing Iraqi Baathist members and soldiers with nothing to live for or lose except a huge hate for anything US -- salaried positions in the war againsy al Quaida and it's allies. Hello? Do you really think over 2 million people care more about Saddam than about feeding their own children? This should have been done 5 years ago and would have saved thousands of needless Iraqi civilian and military deaths and almost 4000 US military deaths as well as some US civilian contractors! Duh!
Posted by: James Sheridan | January 16, 2008 at 01:19 AM