The Jewish Lobby

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Originally Posted by Hax

There already is a quasi-independent Kurdistan in Iraq. Also, Kurds living in Turkey are not Shi'ite. There's more at play here than just religious differences.

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Yeah, but independent Kurdistan would further increase the proportion of shias in the remainder of Iraq.

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Originally Posted by Hax

There already is a quasi-independent Kurdistan in Iraq. Also, Kurds living in Turkey are not Shi'ite. There's more at play here than just religious differences.

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Indeed but quasi is not actual as we both know, also look at how delicately the US acts about it in relation to Turkey they even turn a blind eye to the odd border incursion.

And I wasnt stating that the Kurds were Shia but that essentially as RVG stated the Shia block in Iraq would increase in power even more if Kurdistan were declared. Also I dont believe that Iran bases her strategy on religion as such, but they do have a habit of couching it in those terms for public consumption. It's also easier for them obviously to convince a co-religionist to support Iran not this neccessarily means it would allow Iran to control Iraq.

Iran needs to help Syria and one way to to do this is to attempt to draw Iraq into it's fold, the US will not allow this and naturally keeps the Kurdish card underwraps as a potential block. At the minute it is not in the interests of the US probably due to Turkish and Sunnai Iraq basically not wanting to allow a full Kurdish republic of any kind. That does not mean that as the US turns it's eye on Iran that things wont take a life of there own.

If Turkey does not back the US with regard to the Iranian question in the future then the Kurds may be encouraged in order to block this Shia Arc that keeps the Saudis up at night. For the record I think the Shia Arc theory is a bit beyond the capability of an Iran that has basically drawn attention to itself.

Turkey has a problem in that any attempt to block Iran by destabilising her potentialy allies could unleash real Kurdish separitism in Iraq and Syria.
However at the same time they cant afford not to face off against Iran due to the potential nuclear problem.

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Originally Posted by Kralizec

I really don't see how Israel is even remotely comparable to the US in terms of ideology. Just look at all the instances where Israeli law sanctions, accomodates or promotes religious practices.

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Differences don't eliminate similarities.

That really begs the question what those similarities are. Without wanting to be pedantic, I'll point out that you said "closest" - meaning closer than the UK, Canada, Germany, etc.

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Originally Posted by Kralizec

That really begs the question what those similarities are. Without wanting to be pedantic, I'll point out that you said "closest" - meaning closer than the UK, Canada, Germany, etc.

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Which is absurd - as the closest US ally is clearly the UK, politically, ideaologically and culturally.

I'm not even sure Israel is the closest ally in the region - Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Jordan all have things to recomend them, as does Bahrain.

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Originally Posted by Kralizec

That really begs the question what those similarities are. Without wanting to be pedantic, I'll point out that you said "closest" - meaning closer than the UK, Canada, Germany, etc.

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No, sorry. I should have specified "in the region." Again, it's all relative and I'm not saying that I wouldn't like a bit of change, but I understand the context.

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Originally Posted by Gelatinous Cube

Everyone always forgets Kuwait. That little country loves us. :creep:

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Oh yeah. The Kuwaitis are reputedly even useful in a scrap.