Shiite-Kurd Goals Stymie U.S.

"BAGHDAD (LA Times) By Borzou Daragahi and Alissa J. Rubin— They are the orphans of Iraqi history, grown up and remaking the country's political and social order. But the formidable alliance between the long-marginalized Shiite Muslims and Kurds, a union nurtured by Washington, now threatens to undermine U.S. goals in the new Iraq.

The aim of U.S. policymakers has been a united Iraqi state with secular leanings in which the Kurds, who have been strong American allies, would promote a government aligned with the West. Instead, the Kurds appear poised to accept alliances that guarantee them a secular state in Kurdistan in exchange for their acceptance of a more religious order in the rest of Iraq.

"This was one of the great flaws in the American strategy," said a former diplomat who is close to the Kurds. "They thought that because the Kurds are American allies that they would share their vision of Iraq as a whole, whereas anybody who understood it would see [that] the Kurds wanted out of Iraq and to be left alone."

Although the Shiite-Kurd alliance is replete with ideological contradictions and conflicting aims, they are held together by mutual interests — and the power that comes with dominating contemporary Iraq's political structure. Together, the two won 181 seats in the new parliament: 128 for the Shiites and 53 for the Kurds. The total, however, rises to more than 184 if two smaller parities, one Kurdish and one Shiite, are counted — giving them the two-thirds majority needed to form a government."
The Kurdistani

Didn't someone once say something about war making for strange bedfellows?