Wednesday, February 27, 2008 | Cengiz ÇANDAR

Militarily speaking, the difference between launching a 'security operation' and becoming an 'occupying force' is as thin as a stick

22 July 2008

The Speaker of the Iraqi Council of Representatives has committed an unconstitutional act by violating the manifesto of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, when today he organized a secret vote in the Council. This is a blatant violation of the Council's internal regulations and is a coup against the Iraqi constitution and the consensus political system prevalent in Iraq since the overthrow of the former regime in 2003.

By Ellen Knickmeyer - Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, December 17, 2005; A17

BAGHDAD, Dec. 16 - Kurdish and Shiite factional militias and other armed men blocked voters from polling sites in scattered locations during Iraq's national elections, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Friday. While the intimidation likely was not serious enough to influence the outcome of Thursday's vote, one U.S. diplomat said, the overt militia role was part of a dangerous trend in Iraqi politics.

The Republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, caused anger among Iraqis this month by saying during the New Hampshire primary that US military forces might stay in Iraq "for 100 years". Mr Zebari, asked by The Independent in Baghdad if the American army would be in Iraq in 10 years, said: "Really, I wouldn't say so."

March-April 2008 | By Ted Galen Carpenter

SITTING AT the edge of international attention are states in all but name. Although existing as highly functioning nations, they rest also on the edge of extinction. Taiwan. Kurdistan. Somaliland. Kosovo. With little meaningful international diplomatic recognition, each still often exercises effective self-rule, frequently possessing a vibrant economy and a unified body politic.

Saturday, January 21, 2006 - 12:00 AM
By Richard Boudreaux - Los Angeles Times

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The Shiite Muslim and Kurdish parties leading Iraq failed to win enough seats in last month's parliamentary election to form a new government on their own, complete returns showed Friday, setting the stage for U.S.-backed talks aimed at bringing Sunni Arabs and other minority parties into a broader ruling coalition.

Friday, July 11, 2008 | By Gareth Jenkins

On July 10 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Baghdad in the first official visit to Iraq by a Turkish head of government since 1990 and only the second by a regional leader since the U.S. invasion and occupation of the country in 2003.

- 2005/03/16- Iraq's political and ethnic rivalries have long converged on Kirkuk, the northern city that commands the country's biggest oilfields. The Kurds of northern Iraq see it as a potential seat of power, a site of emotional as well as economic significance.

Meanwhile real power, until recently, has rested with the city's Arab population, boosted by migrants from the south under Saddam Hussein's "Arabisation" programme.

GUERNICA
March 2008 | Lewis Alsamari

Rumors were spread by word of mouth. Some of them were exaggerated in the telling, no doubt, but even the most grisly were not, I am sure, so very far from the truth.