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Quote by: GodBlessAmerica It's a tough one, they IMO have a screwed up culture to begin with. |
Hey, GodlessShameofAmerica, how about contributing something worthwhile to the debate? Now consider: the Shia are Dubya's best bets at present, and they are fighting among themselves. Should they make peace among themselves, they will likely ally themselves with Iran, Dubya's new intended target. And our former golden boy, Chalabi, is now allied with Bani Sadr.
The Kurds? They seem to be getting what they wanted all along: a largely-independent Iraqi Kurdistan. For that, I salute them -- I have supported an independent Kurdistan for decades. But don't expect them to pull Dubya's policies out of the fire.
As to culture: Iraq is the cradle of civilization, has ancient cultures from which johnny-come-lately American culture could learn. It also, unfortunately, has a strong trend toward fundamentalist theocracy, but then so does the U.S. The Kurds, by the way, favor a secular government, and one with some elements of democracy, although not along American lines. They have also been fighting for their freedom for centuries, and they have a long tradition of being very-able fighters. Europeans found that out a thousand years ago, when King Richard of England went up against Salah al-Din, a Kurd from Tikrit. Interestingly, the Shia also went up against Saladin and lost badly, as their dynasty was ended in Egypt and they were largely replaced by Sunnis. And the Sunni-Shia split goes back a few centuries more. So, ancient culture -- but ancient antagonisms. The problem is not 'a screwed up culture,' nor 'screwed up cultures,' rather the problems are: centuries of foreign rule, the Ottoman Empire before European; placement in a single state created arbitrarily by the English after Turkey was defeated in WWI, and more-recent Islamic fundamentalist revival.