Seven wounded in Iraq suicide blast

[bfusco]

Sorry if this is a dupe. It's hard to keep up. Things are really unraveling.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1080919.htm

[Ripley]

1. Wow, Kirkuk is 250 km north of Baghdad...

Is that Kurd country? Looks like the whole country is on fire.

[bfusco]

2. yes

Kirkuk is in the Kurdish region.

[Ripley]

3. Thanks. That kinda blows CentCom's daily briefings huh?

It appears that it is not just the Saddam-loyalists in the Sunni triangle that don't want us there, it appears to be all three major factions in the entire country including the Kurds and Shiites uprising all in the last 24 hour period.

[leftchick]

4. CNN and MSRNC spinners saying...

That there are not many followers of Sadr, most of Iraqi Shiites listen to al-Sistani! :eyes:

[teryang]

6. The problem with that spin

...is that this trouble began when Sistani said he was done talking with any Americans on Friday. This was disseminated in Iraq on Saturday. Country wide violence on Sunday. If he is expected to restrain the violence, Americans don't understand what it means when he says I'm through talking. Al Sadr took this as a go ahead signal.

[TahitiNut]

5. Yup. That accounts for all three major ethnic groups in Iraq.

The Sunnis are fighting back. The Shiites are fighting back. The Kurds are fighting back.

IMO, this indicates a widespread recognition that the US occupation is, for all intents and purposes, the imposition of a tyranny of the wealthy global hegemonists. The lateral factionalization (i.e. 1% rich vs. 95% poor) appears to be more evident than longitudinal factionalization (Kurd vs. Sunni vs. Shiite).

Every one of these "insurgency" actions is like the tip of a populist iceberg. It's a myth to think that such militia can operate without the support, at least tacit, of a large plurality of the indigenous population.

[bfusco]

8. It is probably only the beginning

If one looks at the history of guerrilla insurgencies you see the same pattern. The occupying powers are dismissive of the degree of resistance and level of popular support. When confronted with resistance, the occupiers tend to respond with heavy handed measures that cause even more damage and draw even greater support for resistance. The Battle of Algiers is a great movie that poignantly depicts this. Even when they when Bush and Co were trying to spin it as foreign fighters entering Iraq causing trouble one would have to raise the question on how foreign fighters are able to move around the country and logistically plan for attacks. Someone had to be providing them shelter and support. For now it is lateral but once the United States decides it has had enough and pulls out that's when you will see them fighting one another and the blood bath will erupt and who knows what will emerge (another Hussein, Taliban, radical Shia extremism, splintering of the country along ethnic lines causing regional instability).

[Aidoneus]

7. Not necessarily

It is a divided city, about 1/3 each of Kurds/Arabs/Turkmen. Since the state collapsed the Kurdish collaborationist parties have flooded the city with people to displace the Turkmen & Arab sections. Naturally there is tension there. The Turkmen are in league with Turkey & Muqtada al-Sadr, the Arabs left somewhat in a tight spot and many then support the resistance.