Posted on 06/12/2014 7:27:38 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
No way the Saudi’s back ANY Shiite group. Saudi’s are Sunni and will back ISIS and the Kurds...
Nice going, barky.
Nope...majority Sunni. While the Kurds are Sunni also, they make up a small portion of Mosul.
Agreed...I said this all along the whole time I was there.
Me too. As VanDeKoik posted, the Kurds have been good allies of the US. Which means that Obama will either ignore them or betray them.
The problem is that the Sunni area has nothing of value in it. They will not stand idly by while they become poor and the other two areas become rich.
So am I to understand that part of the success of this group ISIS is that they are backed by or atleast not opposed by the Kurds??
I will give credit where credit is due. Biden was right about two major things:
1. He was against putting ground troops in Afghanistan. His solution to 9/11 was to flatten any Taliban/Al Qaeda asset from the air and from the sea. And if they reappeared, hit 'em again.
2. As you noted ScottinVA, Biden suggested dividing Iraq into three separate homogeneous countries.
I wonder how things would have turned out had Bush II listened to Biden here. It certainly couldn't be any worse than it is now. And a lot of lives and money would have been saved.
ISIS will come up against the Al Sadr militia (and Iranian special forces) in Baghdad, and resolve by the mostly Shiite Iraqi army will increase there.
ISIS has gotten too big. It is now a threat to the Saudi kingdom.
Nope. The Kurds will only intervene and help the central government if they’re granted more autonomy. They will however, totally destroy ISIS by their overwhelming numbers if threatened. Those guys are no joke.
Except that would lead the US to supporting someone who will then attack a NATO ally.
I am going to need a scorecard soon.
We are seeing a monumental shift in the balance of power in the Middle East. This is only the beginning.
Obozo is very pleased.Don’t think for a moment this is not just what he wanted.
Additionally, the Kurds would never cut and run from their posts like the Iraqi Army is doing. They told us 1000 of them would die before one of us did...and that held true.
Just because you've paid people to put on a uniform, doesn't make them an army.
If they aren't willing to fight, they are not an army. The ISIS men are willing to fight, the Iraqi army is not. We will see if the Iraqi Shiites and Kurds can put together a real army before being overrun.
“while Turkey will enter in the North against the Kurds.”
I doubt that will happen. Turkey is happy to have the Kurds out of their territory. They had a nightmare on their hands for awhile with the Kurdish refugee camps in Turkey. I don’t think they will mess with the status quo.
Huge difference between the Kurds, and the PKK. The Turks actually have pretty good relations with the Kurds. They’re fighting the PKK who are literally Maoists.
Absent a strong charismatic leader the synthetic nation of Iraq will and is devolving into three natural constituencies.
These are the Kurdish north, the Sunni in between and the Shia south.
Released from the false collective imposed by the British after WW I they are getting their longed for freedom and independence.
The pundits are arguing the Bush efforts were for nothing. Actually, the Bush efforts were to tame and then depose Saddam Hussein. W conquored Baghdad and deposed Saddam.
The nation building effort is evolving into three rather than one state. Time will tell if the three entities can exist on their own as economically viable members of the world society. Free from the tribal and religious tensions they very well may.
I believe the founding of an Islamic state that weakens or deposes Assad will be good. It may soak up all the wackos into one place where they can attempt to found a new wacko islamic state
The problem seems to be that Core AQ has lost control.
“Are the Shiites just incapable of performing as an Army?”
I think they’re mostly just unwilling to die defending Sunnis from other Sunnis. War will start in earnest when they reach Shia territory.
“That won’t last long now, as the Iraqis still fiddle while Anbar and Nineveh burn. The parliament has postponed a vote on Nouri al-Maliki’s declaration of emergency, which delays any cohesive response.”
Iraq is being carved up like a turkey and they don’t seem to care anymore than the WH does.
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