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Iraqi Kurdistan Referendum


Savage Henry

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On 9/30/2017 at 11:53, welshbairn said:
Is the Iran border closed?


Yeah. It hasn’t been safe for most travel for quite a while anyway.

 

Edit: to clarify, as of today, there is still trade going through, but the Iranian army is conveniently performing drills close to the border, and travel for tourist reasons is pretty much a no-go.  

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 10/22/2017 at 12:13, John Lambies Doos said:

 


Was IS not armed by the West? Where they not the good guys fighting with the kurds to topple sadam. It's all rather confusing. On a more positive note I see all the oil is still flowing.

 

No.

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If you traced the history of it all, the point in history when the strand of militant Islam that has ultimately mutated into ISIS were arguably viewed as the "good guys" in western tabloid media terms was when they were part of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan fighting against the Soviet Union.

 

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If you traced the history of it all, the point in history when the strand of militant Islam that has ultimately mutated into ISIS were arguably viewed as the "good guys" in western tabloid media terms was when they were part of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan fighting against the Soviet Union.
 


And the sunnis in Iraq propped up by the West fighting Iran..
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If I recall correctly, around the time of the Iranian revolution, the Iranians were described as the Shi'ites and a big thing was made of the revolutionary guard and Iranian soldiers happily running across minefields, getting themselves blown up so their fellow soldiers would not be blown up.
Similarly there was talk of red dye being added to water fountains so they resembled a continuous river of blood.

Everything to indiucate the Iranians were total nutcases.

How much of this was true - I have no idea - but at the same time it was suggested (maybe subtlely perhaps ) that everybody else was less fanatical and perfectly reasonable by comparison.

Then along comes 9/11 and the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the whole thing becomes more complicated than before.

To be honest, I often find it difficult to spot the good guys in any of this.

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Probs because there aren't really good guys and generally there aren't bad guys although ISIS are quite obviously wrong uns by all accounts. The Kurds are generally regarded as the good guys by the west and have been reliable allies. The Iranians aren't the bogeymen they're made out to be and a lot of the things they're charged with doing are baseless speculation and likely perpetrated by the Saudis or have no state backing.

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12 hours ago, NotThePars said:

Probs because there aren't really good guys and generally there aren't bad guys although ISIS are quite obviously wrong uns by all accounts. The Kurds are generally regarded as the good guys by the west and have been reliable allies. The Iranians aren't the bogeymen they're made out to be and a lot of the things they're charged with doing are baseless speculation and likely perpetrated by the Saudis or have no state backing.

 

A succinct summary, although the Kurds are definitely the good guys, it's a mistake to lump them all (or indeed any Middle Eastern group) as a monolith.

Funny that the Kurdish referendum topic turns to "good guys versus bad guys and/or Islamic Terrorists" and Western interests, whereas the Catalan thread is all about oppression and sticking it to the EU.  

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A succinct summary, although the Kurds are definitely the good guys, it's a mistake to lump them all (or indeed any Middle Eastern group) as a monolith.
Funny that the Kurdish referendum topic turns to "good guys versus bad guys and/or Islamic Terrorists" and Western interests, whereas the Catalan thread is all about oppression and sticking it to the EU.  


You would think so but I've fallen down the rabbit hole of following mental commie uncritical support for Bashar Al-Assad left Twitter where the Kurds are imperialist shills breaking up the Syrian state. Tempted to buy a bong and go all in on this ideology.
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Mr Henry,

What's your prediction for the political state of Iraqi Kurdistan, say, one year from now and five years from now?


In a year: pretty much how it is now. Baghdad will control the oil and borders, but the Americans will be there to make sure they don’t don’t anything further than the 2003 boundary. Bargain will technically resign from the Presidency, but retain power through a Council of Senior Ministers. Slemani might see an increasing amount of international trade as Baghdad “rewards” the PUK. I’d imagine the airports will be reopened and there’ll be some loosening of trade restrictions.

In five years: no idea. What there won’t be is an independent Kurdish state. If Barzani still dominates regional politics, I can see things getting increasingly tough in Erbil, economically and socially.
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