Partition

Submitted by Leonard Markowitz (United States), Oct 24, 2006 at 18:44

Let me say at the onset of this comment that I wholeheartedly supported the invasion of Iraq. What I did'nt know then was the restricted numbers of troops that we would allocate to this effort. The day that Saddam's statue came down and the looting started and the American troops stoodbye helplessly - on that day the Iraquis lost all respect for the competency of the Americans to successfully rule Iraq, even temporarily. That plus the porous borders, which invited militants troughout the Muslim world to come and join the fray has resulted in our current, impossible position.

Regardless of what we now do or do not do, Iraq is in the first stages of civil war. The country will fragment into three nations - the Shite south with Basra as its capital, the Sunni center with Baghdad as its capital and Kurdistan in the north with probably Kirkuk or Mosul as its capital. Kurdistan will result in an additional problem because neither Turkey, Syria nor Iran would not accept a national Kurdistan and would probably send troops to prevent this. Then there would be the problem of allocating the profits from the petroleum industry among the three new nations.

I any case it's going to be a bloody mess and the sooner we encourage the establishment of the three nations, the less the carnage. As in the case of Viet Nam, let's exit as soon as possible.

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