Skip to main content

Stoking More Divisions in Iraq

And this time, the Iraqi government seems to be responsible. Just when I read the details, I couldn't help but feel irrevocable contempt for a government that is aiding the forces that seek to divide and conquer Iraq by actually promoting the divide. The headline here speaks for itself:
It is a volatile city, but one that is vital to Iraq's future, and Kirkuk is now facing its toughest test yet. Just weeks before a scheduled referendum on the city's future, Arab residents are being paid to pack up and leave. It is a controversial scheme, tied up in the struggle over which community should have control of Kirkuk and its huge oilfields. The so-called jewel of the north lies around 250km northeast of the Iraqi capital, and has always been a valuable prize.(Al-Jazeera, 11-06-07)
Un-!@#$%^&believable. What the hell are they thinking?

And what's the issue? The fact is that we have three ethnic groups claiming Kirkuk as their own. Three cheers for this form of "democracy" that Bush has implemented on Iraq. But what's the deal with removing the Arabs especially? Apparently, some Kurds can't forgive and forget Saddam's inhumane atrocities that were committed on the Kurds. That's a possibility, but let's be honest here. It's apparent that several reasons might be responsible for this policy. One is the intent of the Coalition to divide and conquer Iraq. Through peddlers like Khalilzad, this could be done without them having to worry about the Iraqi government faltering in its loyalty. Another is the possibility that the government itself is made up of a bunch of totalitarian !@#$%^&* (and trust me: you wouldn't want to know the word I censored).

Either way, if Iraq is to unite, a measure like this is the last one could implement for such a seemingly evitable goal, especially since the form of goverment that was supposedly imposed is a form of "democracy". What do you think? Is this policy a move towards a united Iraq, or is it fanning the flames of discrimination and hate?

Salaam, from Saracen

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Politics as an "Outflow of Culture": Unmasking Racism in today's Socioeconomic Scene

A common yet grave fallacy is to assume that (the actions of) (part of) the infrastructure of a particular country at a particular time and place is derived from a singular cause, of which a metaphysical nature attributed to said cause would be even more so. That said, attributing (a perception of) (failed) politics as an "outflow" of a country's culture is in my honest opinion a crock of bull. I'm not denying that culture and politics are related: there clearly is a relationship between the two in the broader historical context. However, this reductionist outlook panders to more than your garden variety racism, itself being built on misinterpretations and misunderstandings. Why is that? First of all, consider that politics and culture are mutually exclusive concepts, although their definitions may not appear to be so on the surface. Politics (according to the pseudo-omniscient Wikipedia [1] ) is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The...

Book Review: "The Third Chimpanzee" by Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond is sort of a rock star in the sphere of biogeography (and science in general depending on your perspective). He is more a doom-sayer than a soothe-sayer, a prophet warning of the destruction of society and mankind as a whole. His magnum opus and prophetic text " Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" has received accolades from a variety of sources, the least of which was the Pulitzer Prize in 1998. Having read that book myself, I came into his lesser-known essay " The Third Chimpanzee " with the expectation that it would be entertaining and enlightening at the same time. Gladly, I was not disappointed, but a glaring issue exists that I will address later. The first book published by Jared Diamond, " The Third Chimpanzee " explores the progression of human evolution in four parts. In the first, he explores the biological premises of our relationship to two other primate species, the common and pygmy chimpanzees (now c...

On "Leviathan", by Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury (Part 1: On Man)

Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan , or The Matter, Forme, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil,  is a veritable juggernaut (pun intended) of a book. It is Hobbes' magnum opus, having been circulated widely by the turn of the 17th and 18th Centuries at a time when England was plunged into civil war. Rather than rebel against the new political order (a war crime according to Hobbes which I will revisit later in this post), Hobbes' central thesis is to submit to the absolute authority of an established commonwealth (preferably, in Hobbes' point of view, a "Christian" one), which he compares to the overwhelming biblical sea monster, the Leviathan. Having just finished reading it, I would like to convey my thoughts on his central themes in as short a post as allowed by the breadth of the knowledge he passed on with this read. For this post, I will stick to part 1 (On Man), and deal with the subsequent parts of the book in later posts. Summary of P...