Iraqis: Who the Hell Do They Think They Are? posted by Richard Seymour

Senator Biden:

"For Maliki and Iraqi leaders to suggest we don’t have a right to express our opinion, I don’t know who the hell they think they are. We have a right. We’ve expended our blood and treasure in order to back their commitment to their constitution. That’s the deal."

Labels: biden, iraq, partition, US imperialism

The partition of Iraq posted by Richard Seymour

From Ireland, Palestine, India, and Cyprus to Yugoslavia, and beyond, the old imperial idea has never lost its appeal. I told you this would happen. Several times, I think I recall. Well, the Senate has passed a bill on a strongly bipartisan basis to partition Iraq into three autonomous zones. If this goes through and there is a serious effort to implement it, then the ethnic cleansing and civil wars you have seen to date will look like a teddy bears' picnic. As if everything else they have done in Iraq, from Fallujah to Blackwater, and everything in between, has not demonstrated how contemptible the claims of Iraqi sovereignty are, this confirms it. Iraqis didn't support the sectarian constitution, and they don't support partition, but no one in the American political class gives a shit. The only thing that can stop this is a stronger, truly national, resistance movement. Otherwise, its communalism and mass murder.

Labels: iraq, iraqi resistance, partition

Bipartisan Bill to Divide Iraq. posted by Richard Seymour

A right-wing Republican presidential candidate Senator Sam Brownback, and right-wing Democratic presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden, have collaborated on a bipartisan bill to divide Iraq into three states. They call this 'Plan B', although a more appropriate title would be 'Plan 9 From Outer Space'. It's been floated by liberal-leaning intellectuals like Peter Galbraith, as well as former Carter assistant Leslie Gelb, and has been echoed by 'realistic' critics of the war in the British papers. The White House have not favoured this so far, despite the fact that their divisive strategies and patronage of corrupt Kurdish and sectarian Shiite groups are certainly likely to generate a weak central state, and despite the fact that the 'federal' constitution they have tried to impose does more or less divide Iraq into three. Note that the formal structure of a single country would remain in any event - no American politician wants to give a large part of Iraq effectively to Iranian control. But the central state would be weak, vulnerable to fracture and patrimonial corruption, and ultimately guided by the American embassy.

The wall in Adhamiya, which analysts say is creating de facto segregation, and which has already produced several local protests, is a crucial test for the American state. If they can use this formal sectarian lockdown to gain better control of the situation, then the Bidens and Brownbacks will probably have a better hearing in the NSC and other policymaking bodies.

Labels: 'war on terror', iraq, partition, sectarianism, US imperialism