Iraq Part II: The Complete Destruction

Well, aside from launching attacks into Syria from Iraq, which violated our agreement with the Iraqi government, and stopping our payments to the Sunni Awakening on October 31st, we've decided to let the Kirkuk problem finally blow up.

The Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is squeezing out Kurdish units of the Iraqi Army from Mosul, sending the national police and army from Baghdad and trying to forge alliances with Sunni Arab hard-liners in the province, who have deep-seated feuds with the Kurdistan Regional Government led by Massoud Barzani.

....“It’s the perfect storm against the old festering background,” warned Brig. Gen. Raymond A. Thomas III, who oversees Nineveh and Kirkuk Provinces and the Kurdish region. Worry is so high that the American military has already settled on a policy that may set a precedent, as the United States slowly withdraws to allow Iraqis to settle their own problems. If the Kurds and Iraqi government forces fight, the American military will “step aside,” General Thomas said, rather than “have United States servicemen get killed trying to play peacemaker.”

Think of Kirkuk as the Jerusalem of Iraq. Everybody thinks they have a ancestral claim to it and they all want it. Oh, and it's where most of the oil is.

As I have said from day 1 of the Iraq War, this thing will really not get going until Kirkuk blows up. The fuse appears to be lit.