[queequeger]

I'd like to point out, for the record, the few errors in the Kos blog. A) There are many Kurds that consider themselves Iraqi. They can be compared (amongst these Kurds) to Texans. They're very prideful of their own people, but that doesn't mean they want nothing to do with Iraq. That being said, there are plenty that would like their own country.

B) There are in fact multi-ethnic units in the Iraqi army, bunches of them. Everything I've seen or heard shows me that the Iraqi army functions pretty well (far better than they should, considering how we've "trained them"). The police force is swiss cheese, with a large number of units owing almost no loyalty to state, only to their tribe or militia (usually Jaysh al-Mahdi), but the army's pretty unaffected on the whole.

Aside from that, most of the other things he wrote are true. Not that I agree with it's conclusion, or much of what Kos writes, I think he's inflammatory at best and doesn't do much good except preaching to the converted.

And UG, which of the hundreds of groups that are vying for power, the majority of whom who could give two shits about the US, is the ominous 'Islamofascist enemy' that you keep referencing? This is one of the biggest mistakes you can make about this war. There is not one single enemy that can be defeated with firepower. If we want to be successful at our self-appointed job of nation building, then we'll need the military, but there is not some big enemy we can shoot at, there are almost a dozen major players, and hundreds of minor ones all vying for national or local power.

They're not 'the Islamofascists' and they're not all terrorists, they're each trying to get their piece of the pie. Contrary to popular opinion, for most that pie has almost nothing to do with the US.