Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Very much like the Kurds in northern Iraq and right in there with the CFR recommendation to split Iraq into states. Looks like each state will have its own army.
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The Kurds have the largest militia force, with 50,000 trained fighters. Officials said the Kurds are followed by the Shi'ites, with more than 20,000 fighters, and then the Sunnis, who can count on elements of the former Saddam Hussein regime.

This month, Kurdistan President Masoud al-Barazani said that he accepted integrating the peshmerga into the Iraqi National Army, conditioning, however, that it served only in Kurdistan and not in the rest of Iraq. The duty of the Kurdish forces in the Iraqi army would be strictly to protect Kurdistan.
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"Kurdish leaders possibly at odds with mainstream Kurdish opinion have said that, for now, they will not push for independence," the Congressional Research Service said in a March 2005 report."
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Meaning the Kurds will press for much desired independence later and their army will already be active in their new state.

Looks like a breakup for Iraq.

-Am