WWTBAM Bored

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/j ... html?hp=t1

On the partition of Iraq.

I think I said so at the time of his proposal (probably here -or at our forerunner boreds).

I have always agreed with him on this and I credit him as it is deserved.

Spock wrote:http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/j ... html?hp=t1

On the partition of Iraq.

I think I said so at the time of his proposal (probably here -or at our forerunner boreds).

I have always agreed with him on this and I credit him as it is deserved.

The problem in Iraq is that a minority Shia group is in total control of the government. The Sunnis are rebelling against it. A federal government would not be successful. The only solution that would work is to form three different countries. Even when it was part of the Ottoman Empire there was constant fighting between different factions in Iraq.

Bob Juch wrote:The only solution that would work is to form three different countries.

That would be a bad deal for the Sunnis. The oil fields are mostly in Shiite-majority territory in the south and Kurdistan in the north:



The Sunni-majority areas also have the least agriculture:



ISIS would like the Sunnis to dominate the other groups, like they did under Saddam (but it would be a theocracy this time). But the Sunnis come up short in any fair partition.

jarnon wrote:

Bob Juch wrote:The only solution that would work is to form three different countries.

That would be a bad deal for the Sunnis. The oil fields are mostly in Shiite-majority territory in the south and Kurdistan in the north:

I am troubled that this map is labeled, "Securing America's Future Energy".

Bob Juch wrote: The problem in Iraq is that a minority Shia group is in total control of the government. The Sunnis are rebelling against it. A federal government would not be successful. The only solution that would work is to form three different countries. Even when it was part of the Ottoman Empire there was constant fighting between different factions in Iraq.

The Shiites are the majority in Iraq. The Sunnis are a majority only in a few provinces, primarily between Bagdad and the Syrian border. During the early days of the Iraq occupation, most of the resistance was concentrated in Sunni areas (Fallujah) until we started paying them off.

Although the Shiites are in the majority, they haven't shown nearly as much stomach for fighting as the Sunnis have, which is becoming very evident here. It's the same thing that happened in Vietnam. A very large and well armed army backed by a lot of U.S. weaponry, money, and technology is useless unless the soldiers have the stomach for battle, which the Iraqi army hasn't.

And it's also silly to think that we could have fixed this by staying a few more months. Unless we were prepared to keep occupying Iraq at a huge cost forever, this day was going to come, and there was nothing Bush or Obama or any other President could have done about it.

Where's Saudi Arabia in all this?

Beebs52 wrote:Where's Saudi Arabia in all this?

On the Arabian Peninsula.

Bob Juch wrote:

Beebs52 wrote:Where's Saudi Arabia in all this?

On the Arabian Peninsula.

Nothing like an indepth analysis, I say.

Beebs52 wrote:

Bob Juch wrote:

Beebs52 wrote:Where's Saudi Arabia in all this?

On the Arabian Peninsula.

Nothing like an indepth analysis, I say.

My answer was actually not as smart-ass as it seemed. Saudi Arabia because of their geographic location has pretty much stayed out of the troubles of the other Arab countries. Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was too close to home though.

Bob Juch wrote:

Beebs52 wrote:

Bob Juch wrote: On the Arabian Peninsula.

Nothing like an indepth analysis, I say.

My answer was actually not as smart-ass as it seemed. Saudi Arabia because of their geographic location has pretty much stayed out of the troubles of the other Arab countries. Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was too close to home though.

I think in the grand scheme of things they're involved in the grand scheme of things.

Beebs52 wrote:

Bob Juch wrote:

Beebs52 wrote: Nothing like an indepth analysis, I say.

My answer was actually not as smart-ass as it seemed. Saudi Arabia because of their geographic location has pretty much stayed out of the troubles of the other Arab countries. Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was too close to home though.

I think in the grand scheme of things they're involved in the grand scheme of things.

I think in the grand scheme of the grand scheme of grand schemes-that Putin might be involved somewhere in the grand scheme. I think he is playing chess-(Probably the complicated multi-level chess designed on Big Bang Theory) and we are playing "Pretty, Pretty Princess."