[La version francaise:
WASHINGTON A TROUVE LA SOLUTION
«Divisons l'Irak comme la Yougoslavie!»
est ici:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/3003%5d


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 bankrupt 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 Führer" (one people, one empire,
one führer). It is also a theory adopted by Zionists who dream of
Israel "purified of Arabs." In Yugoslavia, it was the theory held by
Western protégés, 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@...

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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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