Years ago, I have blogged that the only solution to the IRAQ
problem is to divide the country into Kurd, Shia and Sunni territories. My
argument was that since an Englishman and a Frenchman drew up a map of the
Middle East that they thought made sense but did not take actual ethnic
populations into account, we should re-draw that map along ethnic and religious
population sectors.
It is interesting that I am in the midst of studying the
history of that area and that at one point in history there was a huge area
called the Islamic Caliphate that encompassed most of the area we now call
Iran, Iraq, Syria, etc.
It is also interesting that those Sunni Militants that have recently
invaded Iraq have as a goal the re-establishment of the ISLAMIC CALIPHATE of
the 7th and 8th centuries…fascinating!
I cannot retell the history of that area in a blog but
suffice it to say, it was not a peaceful history and control of the area
changed many times and involved not only Arabic peoples but also Persians and
Turkic people. Note: Turkic people did not come from Turkey but from the
steppes of Central Asia that included the area of Mongolia…remember Genghis
Khan?
Even though most of the people involved in this struggle are
Muslims, they are divided into Shiites and Sunni (Catholics and Protestants)
and are bitter and sworn enemies who will battle to the death as we have seen.
The invading militants are nominally termed Sunni but are
determined to unite the whole area under their version of Sharia law.
They are opposed by Iran which is a Persian Shia branch and
the current government of Iraq which is Shia.
Sunni countries like Saudi Arabia do not want the dastardly Shiites
to control the area so they may offer support to the invading Sunni militants.
The Kurds are Turkic Muslims and may get support from Turkey
that has battled Kurds in the past but would rather the Kurds have their own
country (Kurdistan) rather than live in Turkey.
George Bush dreamt of introducing Democracy into Iraq which
he hopped would have a domino effect in the rest of the area; how’s that
working for you George?
Things should get quite interesting in the next few days and
remember that this is history in the making!
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