Sunni whether
On that same subject, it's alarming that the Sauds are threatening to arm the Sunnis if we "cut and run".You know, I doubt I'm alone in thinking we invaded the wrong fucking place. Pulling the rug out on the Sauds would be a step towards fixing the Middle East. It's past time. Egypt too. They've been punished enough for Nasser.
Those who aren't aware of the arbitrariness of Middle Eastern nations probably don't know that the tribes of Saudi Arabia are in the main the same as the Sunni tribes of Iraq. They just wandered across lands that weren't then parcelled out the way they are now. There are ties of kinship among them. And it's not as though the Sauds aren't already arming and paying for the Sunni side of the "insurgency". And AQ. (Not a coincidence that most of the 9/11 attackers were Saudi Arabs.)
posted by Dr Zen @ 12:54 pm
2 Comments:
Never the slightest justification for going after the Saudis. At least a case could be made that Saddam was a threat, by mixing what he actually did with a few paranoia-inducing fabrications.
Is it really a civil war? I think that is a poor word-choice, made to ignore the tribal affiliations you speak of, and to play into our natural distaste for meddling in other people's business. It's more a tribal / holy conflict, a flare-up in the ancient contest between Shia and Sunni, nothing so simple as a civil war with opposing sides seeking to control one nation.
Iraq is indeed a fabrication and if I could change one thing in history, it would be that in 1914 the Ottomans sided with the Kaiser.
There are all sorts of ways to "go after" people.
"Civil war" is just a conflict between factions within a state rather than between states. Don't get hung up on the "control" thing. Many civil wars don't have the aim of controlling the country. The only people avoiding the phrase are those who want to paint the conflict as between "insurgents" and the "legitimate government". I don't mind "absolute fucking chaos" as an alternative.
I'm not sure about 1914. The Ottomans were finished and needed resolution. I feel Iraq would pretty much have happened whatever, given that the Brits made it.
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