Saturday, October 02, 2010

The Kirkuk question

"Warning
You don't belong here – Leave unconditionally within 24 hours – or else we are prepared to use all means including force, if necessary"
Armed men, in civilian clothes distributed fliers to Arab and Turkoman families in Kirkuk – but mostly to Arab families.
A general census is to be held in Iraq on October 24.
And all through the political crisis – and until this day, PM Nouri al Maliki keeps on statements affirming the date of the census – again and again, as if there was nothing else on his mind.

The above is from "Kirkuk and the Up-coming Census" (Inside Iraq) written by an Iraqi correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers. The oil rich Kirkuk is disputed territories. Prior to the Iraq War, efforts were made to kick the Kurds out of the region. In the time since the start of the war, the KRG has moved Kurds in -- often forcibly.

Why? The Iraqi Constitution demands a census of Kirkuk followed by a vote on whether it will become part of the KRG or controlled by the Baghdad based government or 'government.' The census was supposed to have taken place long ago as was the referendum. It was supposed to have taken place in 2007. It didn't.

There's always been a reason to delay or 'reason.' Despite the fact that the White House defined benchmarks -- by which it would supposedly be able to determine whether the Iraqi government was making progress (they never met the benchmarks) -- included the issue of Kirkuk, all these years later, nothing.

Supposedly the census takes place this month. Supposedly.

Nouri has (currently) State of Law and the Iraqi National Alliance backing him for prime minister. He still needs additional support to become the prime minister. The easiest way he reaches the magic number if with Kurdish support -- support that might be difficult to achieve if he were to back out of the census.


The Kirkuk struggle has created refugees. On the topic of external refugees, MassLive notes, "Michael Breen, of the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project, will speak Oct. 14 during an Instant Issues event of The World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts titled 'Iraqi Refugees: Responding to a Forgotten Crisis.' Breen, the founding co-director of the assistance project, will talk at noon in the Community Room on the third floor of Sovereign Bank at 1350 Main St."

The following community sites-- plus Jane Fonda -- updated last night and today:

Plus Elaine's "Held hostage."

Note to visitors e-mailing crap about today in DC?

I don't give damn. I didn't promote the event, I wouldn't have anything to do with it.

Another Saturday rally? Oh, what commitment, what strength. And what an amazing thing to do so Congress could see . . . if they were even in session.

In other words, a lot of suck up whores embarrassed themselves with a meaningless get-out-the-vote non-event. We're not promoting that s**t. I'm not interested in it. Suck ups never show courage, never accomplish anything. They're a step below groupies. Bad groupies. Stop sending that crap to the public e-mail address. Thank you.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.











thomas friedman is a great man






oh boy it never ends























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