Let Iraq Break Apart

I am now convinced that the only way any type of order will be instilled in Iraq is if the Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites are each given a chunk of the country.

This is going to sound disingenuous, but the cause is not lost, it just cannot be won. At least using our current methodology.

The Shiites and Sunnis have proven themselves to be incapable of letting go of their petty disagreements over religion and thus will never get along. I'm not sure if the majority of Shiites and Sunnis support the violence that takes place, but they certainly have done little to help stop it. I know some Iraqis have tried to help by giving information to the Allied forces, but certainly not enough to make a difference.

If these people cannot or will not stop killing each other then I say let them go at it. At some point one side or the other will win.

The Kurds seem to be the one exception. They have avoided most sectarian violence, have kept to themselves and proven to understand democracy. Although they have separate issues with Iran and Turkey regarding their kin who live in each country, we should pull our forces into Kurd territory and leave the rest of Iraq to fall apart.

Such a move should not be viewed as a defeat for the U.S., although many will say so, because in the end we have accomplished what we set out to do. Saddam is gone, he will never threaten the world again with conventional forces nor push Iraq to develop WMD. While in Iraq we killed thousands of terrorists, some Iraqi, many from other lands.

Our troops fought well and attempted to give the Iraqis a better life. Those who were killed or injured did not do so in vain. While we could have done many things better during our time in Iraq, such as disarming the militias and arresting the hard line Mullahs, we decided to trust that the Iraqis would be happy that Saddam was gone and get on with their lives.

Unfortunately not enough Iraqi's decided to take advantage of this and will now have to suffer.

N. Korea is Itching for a Fight

The North Korean leadership today said that basically anything we do in response to their firing of a nuclear weapon will be considered an act of war.

A good run down on this can be read here.

It is well documented that North Korea is in dire straights. Its people are starving, there is no economy to speak of and what little the country does have is given to the military. When a country is in such terrible condition one of the first things the government does is look for a scapegoat. The Nazis used the Jews in the early 1930s, just like the Palestinians use the Israelis today. The Koreans use the United States as the reason why everything is so tough.

Generally, the next move for these government is to go to war and it looks like Korea is desparate to instigate some type of incident to help take its citizens mind off the fact that they have to eat dirt and paper to survive.

Kim's constant harping that the U.S. is about to invade tied to his provacative nuclear ambitions and missile testing is all designed to force the U.S. to do something rash. Like attack. With his latest statement that anything we do will be considered an act of war, Kim is simply widening his net in response to the fact that we are refusing to act.

As long as we do little or nothing he cannot meet his goal and then his people could get restless and decide eating paper sucks and decide to do a Mussolini on him. For those non-historical people that means hanging him and his wife from the nearest light pole.

I think President Bush is taking the right course. Keep saying we have no intention of attacking and tell him to come back to the negotiating table.

I wonder what would have happened if Iran had popped a nuke? Would we have attacked or gone this same route. It's an interesting question.