This is from the National Intelligence Council, not some leftwing news service.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14975242/from/RS.1/

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the memories of a man in his old age
are the deeds of a man in his prime

roger waters

I still favor the Yogoslavia solution, for Iraq. IMO, that would have been the natural and immediate solution to the post-Saddam thing.

Norm Coleman (R-MN) recently came up with a "profit-sharing" plan for Iraqi oil, which might have some interesting possibilities, assuming that it could get a fair hearing in the Iraqi parliament.

But this thing that's going on now, vis-a-vis the sectarian violence, seems to have very little to do with oil. It has more to do with clashing identities, and therefore it seems to me that the natural solution would be to let the country divide itself. At least that way, people could legitimately invest themselves into whatever "national identify" they may naturally align with. Kind of like the Serbs and the Croats and so on.

But today, sectarian militias have infiltrated the Iraqi army, and it seems to me that only a few politically insignificant individuals really truly believe in the Iraqi "identity". After all, the country was cobbled together by outside forces in the first place, and it's pretty clear that in many cases identifications "other than" Iraqi seem to be more important than the nationalist identity.

People predicted dire consequences when Yugoslavia broke up, and none of those materialized. In fact, it seems to have worked out quite well for everyone concerned. Seems to me, that the current administration is afraid of that a) because it would drive the final nail into the coffin of the travesty that is the foreign policy of neo-Con-servatism, and b) they're afraid of losing control over the Iraqi oil resource, and c) they're afraid of a Shi'a south influenced by Iran.

In each case, it seems to me, this administration continues to wear its blinders. They can't see the upside through all that fear and paranoia.

And, it's causing them to violate their own political principles at a very basic level. And hence, the predominant international view of the US government as arrogant, self-serving, and hypocritical.

It's a very simple equation, really, when it comes right down to it....

LMFAO

I have no problem with that. The Kurds have already de facto seceded. They are flying their own flag. Even if there is a new Iraqi flag they won't fly it or if they do it will be below their own.

I'm sure the Sunni's will eventually dominate the Shiites once again and if not, that's ok. Allied with Iran, it will just be a bigger thorn in the side of the Arab states.

__________________
the memories of a man in his old age
are the deeds of a man in his prime

roger waters

When I heard this story my only reaction was, "no kidding". We've only been saying that for 3 years. But it's nice to see that our intelligence agencies (all 16 of them) can also see the obvious. We are literally creating the enemy we are fighting. Seems silly.

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Where are we going? And why am I in this handbasket?