Posted by garnet71 on March 6, 2009, at 10:56:19
In reply to Iraq and the future, posted by 10derHeart on March 6, 2009, at 1:53:40
Hi 10derHeart,
http://www.amazon.ca/Stakes-America-Middle-East/dp/0813340780
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Iraq-History-American-Occupation/dp/0060764694
There is a wealth of information in these 2 books, yet they are easy to read--and balanced (imo). If you could find time to read just these 2 books, you'd be more educated on the subject than the majority. However, the books don't include what's been going on in Iraq over the past couple of years.
There are tons of polls out there expressing the views of Iraqis. I can't vouch for them and I find that polls can be very biased, but here are some that are not too old:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7299569.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6983841.stm
There's been progress made over the past year.
For the 3 ethnic groups--the Kurds, once repressed and victimized by Saddam, have been most successful in post-invasion business development and generally want to be seperated; the Sunni-less than 20% of the Iraq population-- of course lost so much of their power; the formerly Shiites--comprising the majority of the Iraqi population at over 80%--have gained power. The post invasion conflict among these groups was extremely predictable--and so underestimated by the Bush administration--a huge, huge mistake in their strategy. They really f*ck*d up there.
It's really not that complex if you think in terms of power divisions. Since the beginning of history, groups and governments have fought over resources and power; it doesn't seem much different today--except--we develop more complex systems to divide up resources and power. But if you read the history of the Middle East and Iraq, it puts the pieces together.
poster:garnet71
thread:883454
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20090221/msgs/884078.html