The Kurdish nationalist movement involved racist attacks on Arabs just because they were Arabs for long periods, and the Kurdish nationalist groups undermined the 1991 revolution, and I think a lot of Kurds don't relate to these organisations. Maybe there is some national tension but creating new Kurdish, Shi'ite etc states is a bit pointless and won't really solve anything, people will just get bosses of their own ethnic background.

But that's up to them, Harry. You can't draft them into the class war YOU feel more important. Perhaps they don't agree with you that doing away with capitalism will eliminate ethnic conflicts.

Look Harry, I bet you BELIEVE that it will. I bet you truly believe that ethnic conflicts are the result of capitalism. Your "religion" tells you to have faith, without capitalism there will be no reason for war.

Harry, capitalism is at most 500 years old. Some of the peoples involved in these conflicts have documented histories stretching back many thousands of years. They know that they fought with their neighbors long before capitalism and so have little confidence that just doing away with capitalism will solve this problem.

Don't go on at me, and I don't think that ethnic conflicts are the result of capitalism. I read some articles recently and the Kurdish nationalist groups are not particularly good people, and they started out with lots of racist attacks on arabs, and the groups still seem to have quite a racist attitude towards arabs from what I've read- insisting on disarming them when they were leaving the army in 1991 etc. Many of the actual Kurdish people don't support these groups either. If the Kurds want their own state or federal state system then they should have it, the state borders etc were forced on them by us without any relation to the different groups and perhaps seperate ethnic states etc would make more sense for the region. I am aware that I sounded like a stupid I-know-what's-best-for-these-people type anarchist or something, but there was no need to have such a go at me. The reason I probably sounded like that is because I always considered the Kurds nationalist Kurds and the shi'ites nationalist shi'ites (or whatever), and thats the impression I always get, but now my opinion has changed and I don't think it's as black and white and many kurds are against these kurdish groups, who also btw have collabarated a lot with the Iraqi regime, agreeing to disarm and send back deserters. In your reply you seem to be having a go at the I-know-what's-best-for-these-people type person that you think I am, which I am not, which I guess you got that impression of me from the last line saying about bosses.

We should partition Iraq along ethnic lines! Ethnic partition is a proven method for avoiding tension and war! Just look at Ireland, Palestine and India!

Just one Earth.

Its easy to say the Kurds shouldn't have their own state, which undoubtably would be a capitalist pro-western one, however has any of you had to live under the military occupation of a foreign power who trys to destroy your culture ie genocide, would you mind being ruled by France or Germany?? I'm from Ireland and I'm glad we're independent from Britain,