January 11, 2007
In other developments, US forces raided the Iranian consulate in the Iraqi northern city of Erbil, arrested its five staff members and confiscated computers and documents early Thursday morning.The U.S. says it was 6 detained. MNF Iraq:
Coalition forces conducted routine security operations in northern Iraq and took six individuals into custody suspected of being closely tied to activities targeting Iraqi and Coalition forces on Jan. 11.WaPo:This operation was part of an ongoing effort by Coalition forces targeting individuals involved in activities aimed at the killing of Iraqi citizens and Coalition forces.
A man who lives next to the consulate, Sardar Hassan Mohammed, 34, said he saw what he believed to be U.S. forces surrounding the building with their vehicles before entering it. Mohammed said at least five people were taken.Which brings us back to a quesion I asked long ago: why don't we allow our Kurdish allies to declare independence? The only thing stopping them is us. And the only thing stopping us is our allegiance to a Cold War ally, Turkey. Note to State Department: the Cold War is over.An official with the Kurdish Democratic Party, who declined to give his name, said the U.S. troops confiscated belongings inside the consulate in addition to arresting people inside.
Hat tip to Dan Riehl for first noticing this and connects the action to last night's declaration that no country will be immune if it helps the insurgency.
Update: Related from Pamela at Atlas Shrugs who notes this NY Sun video: Iran's Secret Plan For Mayhem in Iraq.
UPDATE II: Dan Riehl updates his original post with this from the CBC. Yeah, I know it's the CBC--which makes it a 50/50 shot of being true:
An Iraqi general, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the details had not been released, said a mainly Kurdish force from one of the northern Iraqi brigades would be sent into Sadr City, the Shiite slum in northeast Baghdad that is headquarters of the Mahdi Army.If true, what was I saying about how the Kurds treat insurgents?The general said Kurds, who are Sunni but not Arab, were being used against the Shiite Mahdi Army to overcome the predicted refusal by soldiers from other Iraqi units to fight fellow Shiites. An estimated 80 per cent of the Iraqi army is Shiite.
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Posted by: Frank Hunter at January 11, 2007 12:25 PM (SYd2E)
No consulate walls can stop Jack Bauer! Dammit!
Posted by: wooga at January 11, 2007 12:56 PM (t9sT5)
Posted by: wooga at January 11, 2007 12:56 PM (t9sT5)
Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at January 11, 2007 01:40 PM (6zYAC)
Because that would create problems for Turkey, Iran, and Syria. When we (the Western Allies) redrew the map of the old Ottoman Empire after World War I we didn't take cultural identities into account. If we had, there would have been a "Kurdistan" that included the Kurdish regions of Iran, Syria, Iran and Turkey into one country. Basically we simply drew lines on a map and ignored the cultural identities on the ground. Had the map been drawn to nationalize cultural "nations", the region would probably be a lot more stable.
The same thing happened in the drawing of the map in the region of Afghanistan and region of what was then India and now known as Pakistan. Cultural areas straddle borders created by people with pencils and a map.
If the Iraqi Kurds became independent, the Kurdish regions of Iran, Turkey and Syria would want to join it and there would be no end to the fighting for generations. Then the Azeris in Iran would want *their* own country or to join Azerbaijan and then you risk having a map of the entire region redrawn according to cultural identity ... which if you ask me is how we should have done it to begin with.
Posted by: crosspatch at January 11, 2007 03:15 PM (pxZRL)
The Kurds in Iran, turkey and syria already want independence. They have ever since the arbitrary borders were established. Ever hear of the PKK?
The same goes for the Azeris. We should have taken the land and shipped the islamopithecines off to Antarctica to begin with.
Posted by: Jeff Bargholz at January 11, 2007 03:58 PM (abVz3)
The Kurds know that the USA will leave, their Iranian neighbors will always be there. This is part of the reason that the Kurds are angry about our raid.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/01/11/iraq.main/index.html
Posted by: John Ryan at January 11, 2007 10:23 PM (CuYrr)
The Kurds aren't angry at America, you lying sack of shit. The Kurds were allies of the Iranians against Saddam like America was an ally of Stalin against Hitler. They were temporary alliances of convenience, dipshit.
Saddam was never a "friend" for America. He was exploited and tossed aside.
Save it for the other mental defectives.
Posted by: Jeff Bargholz at January 12, 2007 01:14 AM (abVz3)
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