Friday, March 10, 2006

Female Soldiers Blogging

Came across this today whilst searching for movie reviews of jarhead.
http://www.afemalesoldier2.com/

I found the long line of "passport" photos showing the fallen soldiers- disturbing and very moving. I strongly admire what the Americans are trying to do. It is very easy to be cynical about the whole process. Heck, during 1946, a lot of people thought the US had stuffed up the peace in Germany.

Unfortunately, I don't see a quick war for the conflict over in Iraq to end anytime soon. Iraq is not Nazi Germany. Its more like Ireland circa 1970. The problem is similar to the struggles in Northern Ireland but multiplied by a factor of 100.

Basically you have three main groups - The Sunnis, the Shi'ites, and the Kurds. The latter two were under brutal oppression by the Sunni dominated Baath Party who murdered hundreds of thousands of them.

The Sunnis however don't seem to realize the game is up- or worse, they don't want to. They are also being backed by the rich Sunni states like Saudi Arabia. And of course, the terror groups led by Osama. So they have been trying to destabilize the peace process thru terror attacks like the destruction of the Shi'ites holy sites.

Good grief! They are only simply making it harder for the Shi'ites and Kurds to forget the past and move on. As the saying goes- You reap what you sow.

Once the US forces leave, the Shi'ites and Kurds will find it extremely hard to hold back for all those decades of oppression. I won't be surprised if the latter two are just bidding their time and waiting for the US to leave.

Revenge is a strong point in Islamic societies. So if I was a Sunni, I'd be saving up to buy a one way ticket out of the place. Problem is that due to the tribalism inherent in Arab societies, there will be no place for the Sunni Iraq to go to. Ironically, the only places willing to absorb these refugees will be countries like the US, UK, Europe etc..

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