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Centre de recherche sur la mondialisation
Washington Has Found the Solution:
"Let's Divide Iraq as We Did in Yugoslavia!"
by Michel Collon
www.globalresearch.ca 23 December 2003
The URL of this article is: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/COL312A.html
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They have found the solution! Divide Iraq into three mini-states and
then pit them against one another. Does that remind you of something
else? Oh, yes! It's not the first time something like this
happened....
The New York Times published an editorial on November 25, 2003
carrying Leslie Gelb's by-line. He's an influential man who, until
recently, presided over the very important Council on Foreign
Relations, a think tank that brings together the CIA, the secretary
of state and big shots from U.S. multinational corporations.
Gelb's plan? Replace Iraq with three mini-states:
"Kurds in the north, Sunnis in the center and Shiites in the south."
The objective? "To put most of its money and troops where they would
do the most good quickly -- with the Kurds and Shiites. The United
States could extricate most of its forces from the so-called Sunni
Triangle, north and west of Baghdad.... American officials could then
wait for the troublesome and domineering Sunnis, without oil or oil
revenues, to moderate their ambitions or suffer the consequences."
In short, starve the central state around Baghdad because the Sunnis
have always spearheaded the resistance to U.S. imperialism.
We denounced this CIA plan, which has been around for some time now,
albeit discreetly, in an article that appeared in September 2002.
But, to divide Iraq has, in fact, been an old Israeli dream. In 1982,
Oded Yinon, an official from the Israeli Foreign Affairs office,
wrote: "To dissolve Iraq is even more important for us than
dissolving Syria. In the short term, it's Iraqi power that
constitutes the greatest threat to Israel. The Iran-Iraq war tore
Iraq apart and provoked its downfall. All manner of inter-Arab
conflict help us and accelerate our goal of breaking up Iraq into
small, diverse pieces."
Will you take some ethnic cleansing again?
So, Gelb wants to break up Iraq while transforming the north (Kurdish
majority) and the south (Shiite majority) into "self-governing
regions, with boundaries drawn as closely as possible along ethnic
lines."
But didn't this method provoke a civil war and a bloodbath in
Yugoslavia? Because all the diverse regions in that country contained
significant minorities, and partition was impossible without the
forced transfer of populations. That is why Berlin, and then
Washington, discreetly financed and armed racist extremists, who were
nostalgic for World War II. This made civil war almost inevitable
because the IMF and the World Bank had plunged Yugoslavia into
bankruptcy to make it submit to triumphant neo-liberalism after the
fall of the Berlin Wall. All of this was carefully concealed from the
public.
Just as they are now concealing from the public the fact that all of
the peoples of the former Yugoslavia have been plunged into misery
and unemployment, which is worse now than it has ever been.
Meanwhile, multinational corporations have taken the upper hand in
controlling the country's wealth.
In Iraq too, the three large populations do not reside "each in their
own region," but are, for the most part, intermingled. Furthermore,
Gelb knows very well that to start up this strategy in Iraq once
again would, in all likelihood, provoke serious "ethnic" conflicts,
even maybe a civil war. He cynically announces that the state in the
center of Iraq "might punish the substantial minorities left in the
center, particularly the large Kurdish and Shiite populations in
Baghdad. These minorities must have the time and the wherewithal to
organize and make their deals, or go either north or south." In this
way, millions of people would be forced to leave the regions where
they have always lived, but Gelb doesn't find this inconvenient if it
permits the U.S. to secure colonial domination.
Doesn't the Yugoslav precedent serve as enough warning? The truth is
that, for Gelb, the civil war in Yugoslavia was a great success for
the U.S. because it permitted the breakup of a country that resisted
multinationals.
Again the Theory of "Ethnically Pure States"!
In effect, Gelb openly refers to "a hopeful precedent ...
Yugoslavia." Curious, indeed! Weren't we told that the United States
intervened there in order to prevent "ethnic cleansing"? Not at all,
he admits : "ethnically pure" states are alright when they serve
Washington's plans.
While extolling "ethnically pure states" (Gelb also speaks of
"natural states"!), he criticizes Tito for having regrouped in a
united Yugoslavia "highly disparate ethnic groups," while pretending
that Iraq is "an artificial state" for the same reasons; Gelb is
resorting to old theories held by the extreme right.
His theory about ethnically pure states is really identical to
Hitler's: "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein F|hrer" (one people, one empire,
one f|hrer). It is also a theory adopted by Zionists who dream of
Israel "purified of Arabs." In Yugoslavia, it was the theory held by
Western protigis, the Croat Tudjman and the Bosnian Muslim
Izetbegovic. It was also a theory held by the right-wing Serbian
leader, Karadzic. It is strange to find the U.S. extolling theories
that it once pretended to fight against!
The truth is that the United States -- just as all other colonialists
-- is for or against ethnically pure states according to whether or
not it suits U.S. strategic interests. The only thing that counts is
to weaken resistance. Divide in order to conquer. As always. The
Britons carefully organized the division of Ireland, India and
Pakistan as well as other places in the world. The influential U.S.
strategist, Zbigniew Brzezinski, wants to divide Russia into three
countries in order to isolate Moscow from oil reserves. The CIA also
has its "own plans" to divide Saudi Arabia. In an era when very large
economic and political entities are forming around the European Union
and the United States, look at how these same Great Powers are
organizing the balkanization of certain other states -- states that
resist them.
The guiding principle of U.S. international policy is that there is
no guiding principle. The U.S. can pretend to fight ethnic cleansing
one day and then organize it the next. And with complete
arbitrariness. In the past, the United States had obliged the Kurds
to remain inside the Turkish state which was being led by fascist
generals, but today, the U.S. is preparing a Kurdish state, allegedly
rooted in the principle of "self-determination" (in reality a puppet
state). They are pretending to bring democracy to the world, but in
these instances the U.S. is rehabilitating fascist theories about
"ethnically pure" states.
The Danger of a Theory that Is Exportable throughout the World
The danger of this false theory goes far beyond Iraq and Yugoslavia.
Most of the states existing on the planet today are "multinational."
And sensible people consider themselves to be enriched by this mixing
of cultures. But if one allows theories of "ethnically pure" states,
the USA would have a pretext to break up any "multinational" country
that resists it.
Washington, in effect, intends to trample to a greater and greater
extent international law and state sovereignty. The U.S. is preparing
to do throughout the world what it had begun in Yugoslavia and
Afghanistan, which, unfortunately, a majority of Western leftists
allowed them to do for the worst reasons. Stop! It is time to assess
the disastrous alliance of this Left with the United States in the
Yugoslav and Afghan affaires. If anyone wants to resist global war,
that is to say the recolonization of the world, it is time to come to
the defense of the sovereignty of Third World countries, a principle
that is embodied in the UN Charter. This change for the better took
place in 1945 and the USA is intent on dismantling it.
Support the Resistance
The essence of Gelb's plan is to plunge Iraq into a long civil war in
order to rescue the U.S. colonial occupation and to be able to
continue stealing oil. The U.S. will attempt to divide the resistance
-- which can be found in all of the various populations -- by
punishing those who would continue to live together and by
hypocritically organizing "ethnic cleansing." The U.S. plan is to
divide Iraq by blackmail, while defaming the Sunnis, who have long
been at the forefront of resistance to imperialism.
Will Washington implement Gelb's plan? What will prevent them from
doing so? The fear that an Iraqi Shiite state would join Iran, the
most powerful "hostile" army in the Middle East. And the fear that an
Iraqi Kurdish state would become a lightning rod for Kurds who want
to secede from Turkey, a respected strategic ally that lies on the
crossroads of the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East. But if
Iraqi resistance continues to grow and unite its diverse currents,
including Shiites, then Washington risks missing its chance to
implement its plan to break up the country.
The Yugoslav precedent must serve as a solemn warning! Plunging other
countries into the same drama is out of the question! In view of the
fact that Bush has unleashed new dangers throughout the entire world,
and in view of the fact that he is resorting to fascist theories more
and more frequently, the only possible answer is to build up a united
world front against the policies of the United States and to support
the resistance everywhere -- and first and foremost, the remarkable
Iraqi resistance (the mainstream media have often characterized them
as "terrorists").
The Iraqi resistance is preventing Bush from attacking Iran, Syria,
North Korea and Cuba in stride. It shows once again that the United
States has never been invincible. Bush is becoming the world's
laughingstock. "Paper tiger" is the classic expression. In this way,
the Iraqi resistance offsets the discouragement and the pessimism
that had begun to spread in Iraq after the "liberation of Baghdad."
The war is not over; it's only just beginning. Support the
resistance, because we are supporting ourselves.
Translated by Milo Yelesiyevich. Also available in French and
Spanish michel.collon@skynet.be
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In Order to Understand Iraq:
- 23 million inhabitants, divided into 3 large groups (no official
census and the USA destroyed state and civil registries).
- Shiites: 55 - 60%. Mostly in the south.
- Sunnis: 20 - 25%. Mostly in the center (between Mosul and Baghdad).
- Kurds: 20%. Mostly in the north (significant Kurdish minorities
also live in Turkey, Iran, Syria, Russia). The majority of them are
Sunni.
- Minorities (5%): 200,000 to 300,000 Turkmen, Assyrians-Chaldeans
(Christians), Yezidis, 2.000 Jews....
- But no region is ethnically "pure":
o At least one million Kurds live outside of Kurdistan (mostly in
Baghdad, but also in the south, in Basrah).
o At least one million Shiites live in Baghdad.
o Some Sunnis live in the south.
o Some Arabs live in Kurdistan.
For this reason, dividing up Iraq is impossible without risking a
civil war and ethnic cleansing. Especially so in a climate where the
U.S. has done everything it could over the past twenty years to stir
up conflicts while provoking (i.e., financing) certain minority
leaders so that they will favor a breakup. This is exactly how they
did things in Yugoslavia.
In short, if the USA is permitted to divide up Iraq, important
"minorities" risk being targets throughout the country. Then, Bush is
going to say that he is obliged to keep his troops there to "protect"
these minorities.
Exactly as in Kosovo, where the U.S. has installed a military base
with a landing strip that can accomodate bombers (sic !), after
having systematically fanned the flames of the conflict behind the
scenes. Today, the USA in Kosovo is protecting KLA criminals and the
mafia which practices ethnic cleansing. (see Test-medias, Kosovo
questions 2, 5, 7 in our report "Autopsy of Yugoslavia").
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In order to Understand Yugoslavia:
- 21 million inhabitants, divided into 6 republics. According to the
official census of 1991: Slovenia (1.9 million), Croatia (4.7),
Serbia (9.7), Macedonia (2.0), Montenegro (0.6), Bosnia (4.3).
- No region was ethnically "pure": substantial minorities resided
throughout the country which rendered the country indivisible.
- In Croatia: Serbs (12%).
- In Macedonia: Albanians (21%), Turks (5%), Roma (2%), Serbs (2%).
- In Bosnia: Muslims (43%), Serbs (31%), Croats (17%), Others (7%).
All of these groups were mixed together throughout the region.
[EDITORS NOTE: IN IRAQ CIVIL REGISTRIES WERE ALSO DESTROYED BY
OCCUPATION FORCES, SEE, Destroying Iraq's Public Records by Saad
Kiryakos
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/KIR307A.html ]
Despite the warnings of numerous experts and Western leaders in 1991,
Germany, and then the United States, forced the division of the
country at the price of a terrible civil war and the forcible
displacement of populations of all minorities.
Here also, Berlin and Washington have supported, financed and armed -
secretly - separatist leaders and extremists. All this has been
carefully hidden from the public.
BIBLIO: Maps showing the "indivisible" nature of Yugoslavia and
Bosnia, in particular. Michel Collon, Liar's Poker: The Great Powers,
Yugoslavia and the Wars of the Future, IAC, New York 2001, P. 11 & 13.
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