And why we have a Debacle in Iraq:
Peter Galbraith drove home the point that the United States does not understand Iraq at its most basic level and in fact has not sought to understand Iraq. His view is that there really is no "Iraq" rather there are several groups that are being held together under the label of Iraq but think of themselves as Kurds, Shia'a and Sunni. Galbraith made the point that at the outset of the war President Bush did not know the difference between Iraqi Shia'a, Sunni and Kurds.
Galbraith mocked the idea that the election on December 14 was any type of turning point as it will merely confirm the ethnic and sectarian divisions in the country and as a result the outcomes are entirely predictable. After the election the government will be dominated by a Shia'a and Kurd alliance - just like the current government. And, as it becomes evident to the Sunnis that they have little or no political power and that the Constitution will not be amended to give them power, it will result in the already existing civil war between Sunni and Shia'a escalating with the Sunni using the car bomb and similar tactics and the Shia'a conducting a 'dirty war.' As far as the Kurds they are already an independent area in all but name e.g., their own military, their own government, their local laws are superior to Iraq on most subjects (except for in currency and weights and measures) as well as they control the oil in the Kurdish region of Iraq. (The Constitution says all "future" oil but in reality there only is future oil in Kurdish Iraq.)
Galbraith also emphasized that the failure to understand that so-called 'Iraqis' allegiance is not to Iraq but to their ethnic or sectarian group results in not understanding that President Bush's claim: "The U.S. will stand down as the Iraqi military stands up" makes no sense. In his view, the reality is there is no army loyal to the nation Iraq. There are armies loyal to the Kurds - the Kurdish Army has nine battalions with no Arab officers. Further, Kurdish law prohibits other elements of the Iraqi Army from entering Kurdish Iraq. The so-called Iraq Army is rife with corruption - one-third to one-half of the payroll is not delivered to real soldiers but to "ghost" soldiers. The Sunnis see a religious Shia'a army that is close to Iran and is attacking them. When they see the Kurdish Army they see an Army that is loyal to the United States as the Kurds are more loyal to the United States of any country in the region except Israel.
