Bien sak passe des hommes! How's everyone doing today? Most well I hope. This has been a long week, I worked today which is never fun working on a weekend, it's about as bad to me as working on a holiday like Thanksgiving or Noel. But it's over and all went okay for that period. Now it's me time.

So I have been giving this a bit of thought and I have decided that since I know now that i have a readership that for the next couple of posts I would talk a little bit about the country of Iraq. I think it's an important issue. I won't like give a dissertation but I can perhaps clear up some questions alot of people have about Iraq and it's people. So today we will talk a little bit about Iraq's demo graphical history and why we have the Shia, Sunni, and Kurd thing going on. It won't be too indepth and y'all just might learn something so open your minds and learn.

Q: Kyon wassup with this whole Sunni Shia thing? Why are they killing each over this? What's the real deal?

A: The Sunnis and Shia are 2 of the 3 denominations (for lack of better word) of the Islamic faith, with the Shia world wide being the minority. Most Muslims world over are Sunni. The other denomination in Islam by the way is Sufism. Shias adhere to the teachings of Muhammad and the religious guidance of his family (who are referred to as the Ahl al-Bayt) or his descendants known as Shi'a Imams. Muhammad's bloodline continues only through his beloved daughter Fatima Zahra and cousin Ali which alongside the Muhammad's grandsons are the Ahl al-Bayt. Thus, Shi'as consider Muhammad's descendants as the true source of guidance while considering the first three ruling Sunni caliphs a historic occurrence and not something attached to faith.
Sunnis on the other hand revere the Caliphs as inspired by the Prophet and Allah not a historical occurence. Now Iraq has always had a Shia presence because of the country's proximity to Iran which was dominated by the Safavids, a Persian Shite Dynasty/Caliphate. However up until the destruction of Baghdad in 1258 by Mongols the country was dominated by Sunnis.
Jump forward to Saddam's time. Saddam knowng that Shi'ites were the majority of the population and a real threat to Baa'th Sunni domination after the destruction of the Iraqi monarchy made sure he repressed the Shia. It was as brutal and as evil as was everything else about Saddam's reign over Iraq. When we entered the picture we had no idea or conception of the suffering of the Shia under the Sunnis, nor do we evr really think that hey maybe the Shia will use this time to settle the score with the Sunnis. Which they did, which our troops were not half as active to attempt to prevent. Now the violence has spilled out of control and for better or worse Iraqis Arab areas have split in a violent cataclysm of faith cleansing which by the way is not the really the will of the majority of Iraqis but a small hell bent group that wants power over the others.

Contrary to popular belief while Sunnis and Shi'ites have fought each other in the Islamic world that fighting has not been going on forever nor have there not been times when the 2 groups peacefully coexisted not only in Iraq but all over the Islamic world. Okay if you have any more specific questions ask them in your comments because this is a subject I am just skimming like everything else in this post.

Q2: What about the Kurds?
A: The Kurds are a Caucasian Muslim people that live in Northern Iraq and Iran as well as eastern Turkey. Basically after world war I the Kurds were promised their own nation, Kurdistan which compromises pieces of these 3 countries. They never got it. In all three countries they have had Independence movements that have been brutally and viciously repressed. Kurds and Arabs do not get along all that well in Iraq and the Kurds were constantly on Saddam's shit list. Now however they have much of Northern Iraq which they are trying to actually (all other things aside lets just be real) a little Kurdistan which they can definitely do with the oil rich north of Iraq. However the terrorists aren't having it and now the Kurdish north is experiencing violence on an unprecedented scale. For the record Kurds are Sunnis. It is interesting to me that with all the talk about Iran one fact has not been thought out by the US. Iran does have a stake in Iraq. If the Kurds do establish an independent state many Iranians believe that Iranian Kurds will attempt to join their regions of Iran with Iraq. As for the Turks they've basically said that will happen and as a result they are attempting to put troops in the North of Iraq to stop that. Pray they don't cause this war is really just 2 steps away from getting allot more ugly and horrific. For more questions on the Kurds post them to your comments.

Aiight enough for today. I didn't give you a dissertation but you understand little more now. PAIX!!