Iraqi Kurds seize Kirkuk as army flees

Hotair ^ | 06/12/2014 | Ed Morrissey

[PGR88]

Massive proxy civil war coming to Iraq.

Iran will enter on behalf of the shiites. Saudi will have its faction of shiites, while Turkey will enter in the North against the Kurds.

[Genoa]

If (when?) ISIS takes Baghdad this will be moot.

[Jabba the Nutt]

Can you say independent Kurdish State?

And how does ISIS have enough people to hold these towns? Was there no sign of possible Iraqi Army collapse before this? Were they Sunnis or Shiites? Are the Shiites just incapable of performing as an Army?

[Vigilanteman]

FWIW, the victorious Allies seriously entertained the idea of creating an independent state of Kurdistan from the dismembered Ottoman Empire after World War I.

Trouble then, as now, is the various Kurdish factions couldn't agree on anything. It was like herding cats, sort of like today's GOP.

[VanDeKoik]

The Kurds need to just declare independence. They have always been good allies and they don’t deserve to be shackled to the mess Obama is leaving.

[cuban leaf]

Gee, this is gonna be fun. Three more years of obama. The world will not survive.

[Straight Vermonter]

I’d rather see the US aid the Peshmerga, to help them hold the north, than waste money by giving it to the incompetent government in Baghdad.

[Obadiah]

Well done, Obama. Well done.

[dblshot]

Not good for long term security of Jordan and then Israel.

[Straight Vermonter]

Are the Shiites just incapable of performing as an Army?

If being in the army means nothing more than a good paycheck then you will not stand and fight.

[Straight Vermonter]

Turkey will enter in the North against the Kurds.

I don't know about that. Turkey certainly has no love for the Kurds but having seen the mess in Syria they may be looking at them as the lesser of two evils.

[House Atreides]

“The Kurds....have always been good allies and they don’t deserve to be shackled to the mess Obama is leaving.”
********************************************************************

He’s not only “leaving” the mess, HE and his minions created it.

[Daus]

Finally got around to reading Chris Kyle's American Sniper... Just so depressing seeing all of that hard work get flushed down the toilet.

His basic thesis stands. Iraqi's will submit to whoever shows the most ruthlessness.

[ScottinVA]

As much as it pains me to say this, I think Biden may have stumbled onto something when he suggested a three-state (Kurd-Sunni-Shiite) solution for Iraq.

By now, each entity would have its own military and state apparatus. The shiite-dominated hot mess that is Iraq is failing fast.

[Psalm 144]

The Sand Wars. The wind blows and it all starts over again.

[Uncle Chip]

Isn’t that interesting —

They list Mosul as falling to ISIS but isn’t Mosul a Kurdish city and why would the Kurds let it fall to them.

[jacquej]

I would hope that a three-state solution would work, but wait for the ubiquitous “but”...

...given the religious ideology of these sects of Islam, they would still be at each other’s throats (literally), as they demand the “other sect(s)” convert or die in order to establish their version of a “true” Islamic Caliphate.

As a neophyte amateur, probably I don’t know enough and am wrong.

[RockyTx]

Iraq should be broken up.
I have been saying that for years.

[freedomfiter2]

Good. It was a huge mistake to not break up Iraq into three separate countries.