Saturday, August 27, 2005

Iraq and division

Interesting post over at disillusionedlefty. I left the reply which is below. (spell checked) Why shouldn't Iraq be spilt up. (This is probaly a bad start to a reply as you just went at length to say why but I always like asking questions in replies. ) few points i have. 1 these people want to be separate who are we not to let them be. The Irish and the English both Christian countries are now separate. As the people wanted to be separate as they had separate identities much like Iraq. 2. So what if the oil is in the north and the south tough. We don't claim the north sea. 3. About the cities how many Irish live in Boston yet we don't claim it as city in Ireland demanding that people need to be governed by Irish. No they live in America and happily participate in its democratic process. Why would Muslims be any different. If you want to make a Belfast comparison you have to remember that they don't have the historical ties that the north has. 4. In the Iraq war the shia were among the most opposed to iran why would they change suddenly to being pro-iran. 5. People don't like to live together. Look at Europe the size of the place and the amount of countries in it. We shouldn't force people to live together if they don't want to and that is what might have to happen to keep Iraq united. Force

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Haha - I best leave my reply to your reply here too!

1. I don't know if you meant to write "if these people..." instead of "these people...".

If you meant the former, then I accept that. My argument is not intended to oppose an Iraqi position, merely to put my own one out before a decision is reached. If Iraq wants to be divided, I will think it wrong, but stopping the division would also be wrong.

If you meant the latter, then I'd like to see a source to back that up. However, I know that in the past few weeks there have been protests in Iraq against division.

2. I suppose you have a point here. However, in practice, it would make it an awful lot harder for the already unstable and volatile area to survive, if it's main source of cash was taken from it.

3.about the cities how many irish live in boston yet we don't claim it as city in ireland demanding that people need to be governed by irish. No they live in america and happyly partisapate in its democratic process.

Irish people may live in Boston, but they moved there knowing that they would be living in a different nation.

"If you want to make a belfast comparrison you have to remember that they don't have the historical ties that the north has."

I don't completely understand what you are saying here, but I will say that there are many historical ties concerning Iraq too.

4. The Shia calling for division are members of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. They dominated dominated January's election. Historically, it has very close ties with Iran.

5. people don't like to live together. look at europe the size of the place and the amount of countries in it.

Iraq is not a large country as it is - its population - at 26 million - is lower than the mean of the 193 countries in the world today. Even in Western Europe most people live in countries with a bigger population. Of course, this is not a major part of the argument against Iraqi division, but I feel it counters part of your fourth point.

The seond part of your fourth point states: we shouldn't force people to live together if they don't want to and that is what might have to happen to keep Iraq united.

I entirely agree, refer back to the top of this reply. My article was intended in the same manner an article before an election saying that one should vote for a certain political party. If the other party get into power, you don't denounce the voters or say the vote is invalid and shouldn't be listened to (although there are some looney Americans!), you can still, though, disagree with the ideas of the other party.