Situation Normal etc etc
gee... people are being killed, people are being injured, people are - gasp, shock, horror - being taken prisoner and, possibly, treated like animals. and suddenly, there seems to be a realisation among the blind, here and in the States, that it isn't a damn picnic outing for the grunts who are pawns in the mind games and power plays of sadistic maniacs (Saddam) and gung-ho idiots driven by their missionary zeal to spread western "enlightenment" and mores among cultures among whom democracy is a rude word (Bush).
well wtf would u expect, assholes - it's a fucking WAR. people Die in wars, they get fucking Maimed in wars and they get Fucked in the head by the trauma. on BOTH sides.
so far a) the Kurds and the Turks (predictably) are set to blow the shit out of each other again because any excuse will do; b) the Shi'ites* [who regard living imams - in effect the representatives on Earth of Allah and his prophet Mohamed - as their final authority, able infallibly to interpret and embellish the Koran according to the insights Allah gives them] are rejoicing (inevitably) in the south of Iraq because they look forward to the demise of the tyrant Saddam's all-Sunni leadership; and c) the longer the war goes on and the more civilians get clobbered, the greater the groundswell of animosity toward the US and the west in general among All muslim states.
Iraq is roughly 63% shi'ite and 37% sunni. It is one of the few islamic states, along with Iran, which has a shi'ite majority. any attempt to bring democracy to iraq will be coloured by the jockeying for power between the two religious groups. a shi'te leadership will almost certainly become closely aligned with iran.
and we all know how friendly relations are between iran and washington...
the shit-fight we are seeing now, as war rages, may be Nothing compared to the shit-fight that will develop in iraq post-saddam. there is no love lost between the two factions of islam, and the shi-ites (think ayatollah khomeini's fanatical iranian mullahs) are quite capable of leading a few purges in the name of their religion, with an element of reprisal thrown in for past insults and injury.
what i'm saying is that anyone who is expecting the removal of saddam to result in the rise of a stable, peace-loving iraq that is well-disposed to the west needs their head read. There may be a change of regime, but there will be No miraculous introduction of stability to the middle east, and No reduction in the general level of anti-Western sentiment among the muslims. if anything, there will be greater antagonism toward the west by the time the dust has settled.
anyone for musical chairs?
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* There are two major categories among the muslims:
1) - the Shi'ites, who regard living imams - in effect the representatives on Earth of Allah and his prophet Mohamed - as their final authority, able infallibly to interpret and embellish the Koran according to the insights Allah gives them, and
2) the Sunni, who regard the entire Koran as an immutable canon and despise the Shi'ites for reasons Way too complex to elaborate on here. Of the world's muslims, about 90% are Sunni.
Shi'ites, by and large, have proved to be the more fanatical islamic proselytisers, given to backing their religious zeal with Jihads, fatwahs and sundry other nasty aggressiveness.
well wtf would u expect, assholes - it's a fucking WAR. people Die in wars, they get fucking Maimed in wars and they get Fucked in the head by the trauma. on BOTH sides.
so far a) the Kurds and the Turks (predictably) are set to blow the shit out of each other again because any excuse will do; b) the Shi'ites* [who regard living imams - in effect the representatives on Earth of Allah and his prophet Mohamed - as their final authority, able infallibly to interpret and embellish the Koran according to the insights Allah gives them] are rejoicing (inevitably) in the south of Iraq because they look forward to the demise of the tyrant Saddam's all-Sunni leadership; and c) the longer the war goes on and the more civilians get clobbered, the greater the groundswell of animosity toward the US and the west in general among All muslim states.
Iraq is roughly 63% shi'ite and 37% sunni. It is one of the few islamic states, along with Iran, which has a shi'ite majority. any attempt to bring democracy to iraq will be coloured by the jockeying for power between the two religious groups. a shi'te leadership will almost certainly become closely aligned with iran.
and we all know how friendly relations are between iran and washington...
the shit-fight we are seeing now, as war rages, may be Nothing compared to the shit-fight that will develop in iraq post-saddam. there is no love lost between the two factions of islam, and the shi-ites (think ayatollah khomeini's fanatical iranian mullahs) are quite capable of leading a few purges in the name of their religion, with an element of reprisal thrown in for past insults and injury.
what i'm saying is that anyone who is expecting the removal of saddam to result in the rise of a stable, peace-loving iraq that is well-disposed to the west needs their head read. There may be a change of regime, but there will be No miraculous introduction of stability to the middle east, and No reduction in the general level of anti-Western sentiment among the muslims. if anything, there will be greater antagonism toward the west by the time the dust has settled.
anyone for musical chairs?
------
* There are two major categories among the muslims:
1) - the Shi'ites, who regard living imams - in effect the representatives on Earth of Allah and his prophet Mohamed - as their final authority, able infallibly to interpret and embellish the Koran according to the insights Allah gives them, and
2) the Sunni, who regard the entire Koran as an immutable canon and despise the Shi'ites for reasons Way too complex to elaborate on here. Of the world's muslims, about 90% are Sunni.
Shi'ites, by and large, have proved to be the more fanatical islamic proselytisers, given to backing their religious zeal with Jihads, fatwahs and sundry other nasty aggressiveness.