Friday, February 09, 2007

What They're Not Telling You About Iraq



It's bad enough we're escalating the violence in Baghdad. There's something they aren't talking about anywhere in the United States mainstream media. There's a whole new war-within-a-war coming to Iraq in the North - precisely Kirkuk.

It's been a long time in coming, but it's coming.

The problems surrounding Kirkuk involve the U.S., the Kurds, and Turkey. The Kurdish leadership in Iraq is split between Jalal Talibani’s PUK and Massoud Barzani’s KDP. [The KDP is the party that was, most curiously, taken on as a client by the K Street lobbyist firm Barbour, Griffith & Rogers just a month after there was $1.4bn in Iraqi oil revenues - cold hard cash - dumped by the US-led occupation authority from an airplane into Kurdish territory.]

Both the PUK and the KDP want the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, which lies just outside the Kurdish region, to be part of their domain but they are at loggerheads over whose forces will control the city. Meanwhile Turkey, which has a large Kurdish population, does not want any Kurdish forces to control Kirkuk. It's looking to be quite possible that Turkey will intervene militarily under the guise of helping the ethnic Turkmen of the city. Turkey is also scared that the Kurds might declare an independent state in future, and is trying to put pressure on the U.S. to ensure that this does not happen.

An antagonized and outspoken Turkish AKP(Justice and Development Party) MP named Turan Comez has said that PKK terrorists, using identity cards given to them by the KDP are moving into the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, and bringing heavy weapons with them.

The Iranian influence complicates matters all the more, especially when President Bush refuses to conduct diplomatic relations with Iran. The worried Kurds of East Kurdistan have commented on their gratitude for the recent raid and arrest of Iranian "consulate members" in Arbil because the Iranian influence has made intelligence inroads into the KDP and PUK. (Please tell me why, once again, it's ethical for a K Street lobbyist to be making money by representating the interests of a political party that is one of many forces at war with one another in this horrid civil war in Iraq while our U.S. troops die for the faction-du-jour?)
The recent American arrest of the so-called Iranian consulate members in Arbil, demonstrated that the Iranians are still approaching PUK and KDP leaderships as intelligence interests. From this point of view the American action was very necessary and welcome. Iran has used its flexible approach to Barzani and Talabani after 1992 in order to silence its Kurdish opponents from East Kurdistan.
We must remember that the city of Kirkuk and the immediate region around consists of residents of diverse ethnicity. Rising inter-communal tensions in Kirkuk, exacerbated by recent car bombings and other violence, have now been aggravated further with the unveiling of a plan to relocate thousands of Arab residents.

There are so many forces at play here, and God help us, I do not trust that the Bush administration has the competence, vision, brainpower, or the ideological scope or flexibility to avoid disaster over Kirkuk.

9 comments:

GreenSmile said...

I fear it is going to have to get worse before it gets better. "Worse" is of course a matter of perception and too many of us do not pay attention, don't want to pay attention, to the lying and ommission that got us into the war...so why start listening now? How hard do you have to scream, how bittterly weep in Iraq for anyone to hear you in the heartland that has pulled a curtain of "homeland security" around itself?

Good news in such a situation is often perverse. As I see it, the good news is that Dubya is working hard on the "its getting worse" part of the equation.

Fans and Friends of Lydia Cornell said...

Jude, I just left a comment on your prior post, which was amazing in its synchronicity, as is this one.

I am also a long-time devotee of the messages in The Secret.

Thank you for this post about Kirkuk. Startling information.

You have a fantastic blog!!

Fans and Friends of Lydia Cornell said...

By the way, keeping in mind the law of attraction and The Secret -- I bounce back and forth between anger and healing thoughts about George Bush and the other criminals in power.

As Wayne Dyer says: everything we are fighting "against" has to be reframed. What are we "for"
We are for peace, love and unity. We have to focus on these things...

Jude Nagurney Camwell said...

Thanks, Lydia. It's coincidence, perhaps...but I do believe in something beyond mere coincidence. I've heard Deepak Chopra tell stories about "meaningful coincidence" and they blow my mind.

The Secret is amazing, isn't it? I've watched it quite a few times and I'm currently letting a blogging friend borrow it for inspiration. I woudl love to meet Dr. Michael Beckwith. One of these days. I have the Secret...anything's possible! ;)

Greensmile - Thanks so much for the information. I will be in North Carolina next Thursday and I signed up to go to see that MoveOn.org film at a Baptist church there....I'll be happy to meet new friends with whom I can share this experience.

Jude Nagurney Camwell said...

Lydia,

Yes - I know what you mean exactly. After viewing the Secret, I began to see "anti-war" in a whole new light. I'll be the first to admit that I was taken off guard. Everything I thought I knew about the path I'd been on was changed in an instant.

I'm working on a more joyous transformation.

We'll find a way to help set this world on a strong and balanced axis where people can coexist in peace and where no one has to hate in order to survive, my sister, I know we will.

Fans and Friends of Lydia Cornell said...

Jude, I go to Agape and used to go quite often, where Rev. Michael Beckwith is the minister.

He married some friends of mine over 10 years ago. It seems that a lot of people in California have been progressive this way for years. A non-denominational church has the best chance of flourishing when people are open and receptive, growing towards "enlightenment"

The stuff in the Secret is something we have been aware of for years, but finally they put it together in a way people can receive. Also, "What the Bleep Do We Know" is a similar message.

Christian Science is the forerunner of all metaphysics, but it was ahead of its time. It's the true lost healing power of Christ. We've had miraculous healings.
xo

Fans and Friends of Lydia Cornell said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fans and Friends of Lydia Cornell said...

What I mean is, I my family has had many healings of broken bones, depression, illness through raising consciousness.

What seems miraculous, is really natural.

I love this quote: "Coincidences are God's way of remaining anonymous."

Jude Nagurney Camwell said...

Great quote, Lydia!

When I get out to California, I'll make a point to visit Agape. One of my best friends in this world is a David Beckwith and we wonder if they're related in some way - he and Rev. Michael. David and I have been working on a literary project together about an historic Arfican American figure named Jim Beckwourth, who was actually born a 'Beckwith' - whose father's ghost has been documented as having been seen haunting a Virginia estate.