Iraq went back 14 years.

[Gem]

From 2004 to 1990

Iraq claims kuwait, jordan. (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1514&e=9&u=/afp/20040221/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_jordan_kuwait_politics_territory_040221134448 )

Crazy world. Is there really a difference between democraticly elected presidents and dictator presidents?

Gem

[Mycroft]

The link doesn't work. What was it supposed to say?

[clk]

See if it works now: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040221/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_jordan_kuwait_politics_territory_040221134448

Hmm, still doesn't work...try this link and click on the first site:
http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?c=&p=iraq+jordan+kuwait+politics

[Gem]

The link doesn't work. What was it supposed to say?

My bad, first time I tried this option.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040221/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_jordan_kuwait_politics_territory_040221134448

The president of the Iraqi interim Governing Council said that Baghdad could consider territorial claims over neighbouring Jordan and Kuwait in the future.

Like I said, crazy world. How do we threaten invasion to a situation like this? I hope the iraqis throw him out of office.

Gem

[Mycroft]

It's weird that it can't be linked to directly.

That does seem strange that they would be saying that, but I wouldn't place too much importance on it just yet.

[aerocontrols]

Originally posted by Gem
Like I said, crazy world. How do we threaten invasion to a situation like this? I hope the iraqis throw him out of office.


Threaten... invasion...?

[Earthborn]

Really this should have come as a surprise to anyone who bothered to look for five minutes into the history of Iraq. These border disputes originate from long before Saddam even took power, and they are likely to stay until they are resolved.

History of the Kuwait-Iraq Border Dispute (http://www.kuwait-info.org/Fact_Sheets/history_kuwait_iraq_border_dispute.html) (Kuwaiti side of the story)
History of Persian Gulf War (http://countrystudies.us/persian-gulf-states/32.htm) (US site)

Kuwait (especially the Islands Warbah and Bubiyan) is in a rather uncomfortable position for Iraq, since it can easily control what Iraq wants to export by sea: oil of course.

Before this war started, this is exactly what historians who were interviewed for a television program in the Netherlands have predicted. It remains an issue for Iraq, no matter what kind of government is there... US friendly puppet government, Western style democracy, theocratic pseudodemocracy like Iran, or a dictatorship like Saddam Hussein's. It makes no difference.I hope the iraqis throw him out of office.No, they won't.That does seem strange that they would be saying that, but I wouldn't place too much importance on it just yet.It is not strange at all, and it is very important.

[aerocontrols]

Originally posted by Gem
Like I said, crazy world. How do we threaten invasion to a situation like this? I hope the iraqis throw him out of office.

It occurs to me that I was vague, so let me try to get my point across:

Do you think that the Spaniards should throw Aznar out of office because he threatened to invade (http://www.gibconnect.com/~gibtalk/part1.htm) the UK?


Sorry, still being sarcastic. Claims to rights over disputed territory do not necessarily equate to threats of invasion.

[UserGoogol]

vBulletin's auto-parse-URL feature seems to be broken for very long URLs. It throws a space into the URL (%20) and ends it with a <br>, causing the URL to be invalid. (Anti-page-stretching precaution, I reckon.)

This link (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040221/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_jordan_kuwait_politics_territory_040221134448 ) oughtta work.

(And yet it doesn't. Weird.)

[Garrette]

Earthborn,

For once, I am in nearly complete agreement with you.

The disputes are quite old and cannot be resolved quickly or easily.

However, regarding whether the Iraqis will "throw him out of office", I think they very well might as soon as they are granted the authority to do so. Chalabi is not popular among the Iraqis who suffered under Saddam because

a) he didn't

AND (this is important; the first objection would mean nothing without it)

b) did not get involved until comparatively recently in political attempts to help the Iraqi people.

There are those who either remained in Iraq under Saddam or who fled Iraq but worked long and hard from outside the borders who hold more respect than Chalabi.

Rightly or wrongly, Chalabi is seen as an opportunist here.

[Earthborn]

Originally posted by Garrette
For once, I am in nearly complete agreement with you.Have you ever been in near complete disagreement with me? If you think you did maybe you didn't understand my position.However, regarding whether the Iraqis will "throw him out of office"Okay. Maybe I should have said "the Iraqis will not throw anyone out of office when he says things like this."

Of course they might throw people out for having unpopular opinions.I think they very well might as soon as they are granted the authority to do so.Let's replace 'as soon as' with 'if', shall we? I don't think the Bush administration has been very clear about what it is planning to do with the Iraqi government.

[Garrette]

Well, yes, on your 10,000 dead threads...

Regarding the rest, I now understand better, I think, your standing. The voiced opinion that territory not currently recognized as Iraqi should be Iraqi, while seemingly inflammatory to us, is perhaps appealing to the Iraqi populace. Close? You may be right.

Regarding whether or not there will be a transfer of authority, I don't know. You may be right on that, too, but the official plan is still to do it by the end of June.

[aerocontrols]

Originally posted by Garrette
However, regarding whether the Iraqis will "throw him out of office", I think they very well might as soon as they are granted the authority to do so. Chalabi is not popular among the Iraqis who suffered under Saddam because

I believe you are referring to the wrong 'him' here. Mohsen Abdel Hamid is not Ahmed Chalabi.

For those who want to read the article, try here (http://tinyurl.com/2d6qd).

[Garrette]

My bad, aero. Thanks.