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THE Iraq Thread

A forum for discussion of regional topics including oil depletion but also government, society, and the future.

THE UK and Iraq Thread (merged)

Unread postby Markos101 » Sun 26 Sep 2004, 20:01:48

Sir David Frost gives Blair bashing over Iraq
Brilliant interview - thoroughly recommended viewing.
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Oil and Kurds

Unread postby stu » Fri 21 Jan 2005, 08:53:42

An interesting article here from the excellent Asia Times which describes the potential trouble around the oil-rich Kurdish city of Kirkuk in Northern Iraq.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GA22Ak01.html

"In October/November, 2004 it was widely reported that the Turkish military had begun drafting contingency plans for a possible invasion of northern Iraq in early 2005, with at least 20,000 troops. Officials said that the Turkish General Staff had urged approval from the government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan and to sound out the US."
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Unread postby pilferage » Fri 21 Jan 2005, 17:54:54

This could be the next 'Pearl Harbor'!
Think of it, our 'innocent' troops who were only trying to provide freedom (from life) for all Iraqis are caught in a brutal surprise attack by Turkish forces...
before you know it the war spills over into east-asia, eastern-europe, and northern africa... possibly the pacific if china and the us go toe to toe. :(
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Unread postby stu » Mon 24 Jan 2005, 08:19:01

pilferage wrote:This could be the next 'Pearl Harbor'!
Think of it, our 'innocent' troops who were only trying to provide freedom (from life) for all Iraqis are caught in a brutal surprise attack by Turkish forces...
before you know it the war spills over into east-asia, eastern-europe, and northern africa... possibly the pacific if china and the us go toe to toe. :(


According to Brezizinski's The Grand Chessboard, the Middle East and Central Asia are so ethnically divided that they could easily descend into the next Balkan style conflict.
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Unread postby Madpaddy » Mon 24 Jan 2005, 08:27:23

Sorry to burst the bubble but Turkey is in the pot with the US and Israel.

Turkey is in NATO. Israel and Turkey have several joint military programmes including the Merkava Main Battle Tank. So the prospect of Turkey and the US going to war is absolutely NIL.

If you want to harbour ill will towards Turkey though I suggest you watch Midnight Express
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Unread postby Madpaddy » Mon 24 Jan 2005, 08:33:03

Come to think of it.

If the Turks occupied Northern Iraq it would free up US troops for the assault on Iran or to pacify the rest of Iraq. This makes more sense to me.
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Unread postby stu » Mon 24 Jan 2005, 09:32:53

Maybe madpaddy.

But I'm guessing you missed the last paragraph of the article. :P

"Erdogan recently completed a visit to Moscow, soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin's postponed visit to Ankara last month, the first since 1973. While relations between Turkey and US have cooled down primarily over Iraq, Turkey has come closer to its historic enemy Russia. After the exchange of visits by Erdogan and Iranian President Mohammad Khatami to Ankara, relations between them, historically soured by Shi'ite and Sunni rivalry and enmity, are improving in the background of the turmoil in Iraq and increasing chaos in the region. It is going to get worse.
In 1999, Ankara threatened to invade Syria if it did not expel Abdullah Ocalan (which it did and he was captured and imprisoned in Turkey ), but since then relations between Syria and Turkey have warmed up, with an exchange of visits by Syrian President Bassar Assad and Erdogan. There is talk of Russia supplying state-of-the-art missiles to Syria. In the past Turkey would have denounced such a deal. At the same time relations between Turkey and Israel, which were very close during the Cold War and reached an almost "allies" level after the fall of the Berlin Wall, have deteriorated sharply, with Erdogan accusing Israel of state terrorism and asking it to leave Kurdish north Iraq alone. Israel has been training Kurdish Peshmergas to operate in the neighborhood, specially in Iran and Syria."
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Unread postby Madpaddy » Mon 24 Jan 2005, 09:38:23

Interesting article but I don't buy into it YET
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Unread postby stu » Mon 24 Jan 2005, 09:54:29

Me neither.

These are very interesting times regarding geopolitics and anything could happen.
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Unread postby gary_malcolm » Mon 24 Jan 2005, 21:25:15

stu wrote:According to Brezizinski's The Grand Chessboard, the Middle East and Central Asia are so ethnically divided that they could easily descend into the next Balkan style conflict.


You should check out "After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order" by Emmanuel Todd. He really skewers Brezizinski as being theatrically short sighted about European/Russian relations as this clearly points out.
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Unread postby pilferage » Tue 25 Jan 2005, 01:11:38

Madpaddy wrote:Sorry to burst the bubble but Turkey is in the pot with the US and Israel.

Turkey is in NATO. Israel and Turkey have several joint military programmes including the Merkava Main Battle Tank. So the prospect of Turkey and the US going to war is absolutely NIL.

If you want to harbour ill will towards Turkey though I suggest you watch Midnight Express


Prior to WW II U.S./Japan relations weren't that bad...
http://pbsvideodb.pbs.org/programs/all_ ... _id=7849#3
Hell, we even helped them modernize their infrastructure.
Not that I'm implying this will happen, but that it could, especially given our administration's militaristic slant.
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Unread postby stu » Thu 27 Jan 2005, 10:47:48

This kind of adds another dimension to the forthcoming Iraqi election.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/interna ... -Iraq.html
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Why you should not fly low over Iraq

Unread postby BabyPeanut » Mon 31 Jan 2005, 09:57:30

http://www.diario.com.mx/nota.asp?notai ... 7f899c64a0
LONDON_ Britain´s foreign minister said Monday that the downing of a C-130 military transport plane north of Baghdad, which reportedly killed about 10 servicemen, was the biggest single loss of British lives since the start of the Iraq war.

In a statement posted on an Islamic Web site, the Iraqi militant group Ansar al-Islam claimed responsibility for Sunday´s downing the plane north of Baghdad. The statement´s authenticity could not be immediately confirmed.

The group claimed its fighters tracked the aircraft, ``which was flying at a low altitude, and fired an anti-tank missile at it.´´

The plane went down hours after polls closed in Iraq while flying from Baghdad to the town of Balad.
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Iraq: Downing Street Memo - on online Radio...

Unread postby UIUCstudent01 » Thu 16 Jun 2005, 14:51:26

The Downing Street Memo Hearing is on Pacifica Radio at the time of this posting.

It's also on C-Span 3.
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Unread postby pilferage » Thu 16 Jun 2005, 16:44:21

Is anyone else having problems with kpfa's feed?
"Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. "
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Unread postby LadyRuby » Thu 16 Jun 2005, 16:48:45

Can get it on Washington Post online, too. Or c-span I think.

About time they took it seriously!
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Good Synopsis of the 7 Downing Street Memos

Unread postby Carlhole » Thu 16 Jun 2005, 19:13:28

How Much Proof Needed Before the Truth Comes Out? Now Seven Leaked British Documents Raise Iraq War Questions by Kevin Zeese link
Last edited by Ferretlover on Tue 03 Mar 2009, 22:21:51, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Merged with an earlier thread-same topic.
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Unread postby LadyRuby » Thu 16 Jun 2005, 23:35:26

I guess we Americans aren't averse to our president sending men and women to war under false pretenses. I mean, sheesh, it's not as if he's had an extramarital affair or done anything REALLY serious!!!!
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Blair blames France for Iraq war

Unread postby rogerhb » Tue 08 Nov 2005, 16:53:37

Please miss, it wasn't me, it was him.

Blair Blames France for Iraq War in Reply to Diplomat's Claims

Colin Brown wrote:Senior French sources accused Mr Blair of a faulty memory.


Colin Brown wrote:Sir Christopher supported the French in concluding that the French opposition to the draft UN resolution was not final.


Fortunately for Chris Meyer he already has his knighthood.
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers." - Henry Louis Mencken
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Re: Blair blames France for Iraq war

Unread postby Jake_old » Tue 08 Nov 2005, 17:07:13

:lol:

I knew it, its always those damn French
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