Well This Sucks.

The following snipets come from Knight Ridder reporter Tom Lasseter, and were brought to my attention by Common Dreams.

Published on Wednesday, December 28, 2005 by Knight Ridder
Kurds in Iraqi Army Proclaim Loyalty to Militia
by Tom Lasseter

KIRKUK, Iraq - Kurdish leaders have inserted more than 10,000 of their militia members into Iraqi army divisions in northern Iraq to lay the groundwork to swarm south, seize the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and possibly half of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, and secure the borders of an independent Kurdistan. Five days of interviews with Kurdish leaders and troops in the region suggest that U.S. plans to bring unity to Iraq before withdrawing American troops by training and equipping a national army aren't gaining traction. Instead, some troops that are formally under U.S. and Iraqi national command are preparing to protect territory and ethnic and religious interests in the event of Iraq's fragmentation, which many of them think is inevitable. The soldiers said that while they wore Iraqi army uniforms they still considered themselves members of the Peshmerga - the Kurdish militia - and were awaiting orders from Kurdish leaders to break ranks. Many said they wouldn't hesitate to kill their Iraqi army comrades, especially Arabs, if a fight for an independent Kurdistan erupted. "It doesn't matter if we have to fight the Arabs in our own battalion," said Gabriel Mohammed, a Kurdish soldier in the Iraqi army who was escorting a Knight Ridder reporter through Kirkuk. "Kirkuk will be ours."

Well isn't that just dandy. So glad we have expended over 2100 of America's best and billions of dollars in taxpayers money to create this mess. The truly sick part of all of this is that we are training the very army, or elements thereof, that will be fighting us sooner or later. I wish I could laugh at the irony, but this crap isn't even remotely funny. We have paid a price in our dearest blood that these bastards infesting 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue can never hope to make a down payment on.

Now if any lurking neo-cons still think Iraq isn't a total screw up, my first thought would be, "Get your head out of your ass!", however in lieu of that we have this:

Published on Wednesday, December 28, 2005 by Knight Ridder
Many Iraqi Soldiers See a Civil War on the Horizon
by Tom Lasseter
KIRKUK, Iraq - Passions run deep for the Arab and Kurdish soldiers who wear the Iraqi army uniform. Kirkuk lies just a few miles from one of the nation's largest oil fields, worth billions of dollars. Arabs figure that the city's oil wealth should belong to Iraq, while ethnic Kurds see it as part of a future nation of Kurdistan. "If the Kurds want to separate from Iraq it's OK, as long as they keep their present boundaries," said Sgt. Hazim Aziz, an Arab soldier who was stubbing out a cigarette in a barracks room. "But there can be no conversation about them taking Kirkuk. ... If it becomes a matter of fighting, then we will join any force that fights to keep Kirkuk. We will die to keep it." Kurdish soldiers in the room seethed at the words. "These soldiers do not know anything about Kirkuk," Capt. Ismail Mahmoud, a former member of the Kurdish Peshmerga militia, said as he got up angrily and walked out of the room. "There is no other choice. If Kirkuk does not become part of Kurdistan peacefully we will fight for 100 years to take it."

Part of me really hopes that this Iraqi mess was planned by BushCo., because fuck- ups of this magnitude are hard to come by accidentally. If this is the result of some grandiose Realpolitik agenda I can swallow that better than if it isn't.

If this is just a situation that went totally F.U.B.A.R. then we are truly being led by incompetent morons, syncophants and thieves, rather than just thieves!