Bush failure: Iraqi Kurds Will Proclaim Independence in Case of Civil War

The recent violence in the Kurdish area of Iraq has exposed yet another failure to plan for the aftermath of the invasion by the Bush team. The Kurds in the north have for generations dreamed of an independent homeland, an understandable goal. Yet a push for independence coming now, as a result of the ill-fated Bush occupation of Iraq, will only draw the entire region into further chaos, further damage US credibility and damage our relationship with Turkey, a secular Muslim democracy, a good ally in the region and NATO member. It would also further erode our hopes of ever "winning hearts and minds" in the Arab world, which is crucial to contain the recruiting efforts of the REAL terrorists, such as ObL.

Ethnic Kurds are found in the nations of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Armenia and Syria. The breakup of the old Ottoman empire led to a Western imposition of borders irrespective of the ethnic loyalties and natural divisions of the populations involved, much as done in the rest of the middle east, inevitably leading to innumerous difficulties and bloody struggles. If a civil war breaks out in Iraq, the instability could easily spill over into these other countries, drawing them all into a chaotic conflict that would ultimately be blamed on the US. This potential destabilization of the entire region is a direct result of the failure of the Iraq war, and in NO WAY serves the interests of the US.

A further distressing development are the recent reports that the Kurds have entered into a separate contract to build an airport in the Kurdish region of Iraq, which is considered a necessary pre-condition to independence.

The US media has paid little attention to this crucial aspect of the looming disaster in Iraq. It is time it did so, as this will affect all of us.

Note these recent comments by Massud Barzani, president of northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish zone, as reported by Assyrian International News Agency:


So, this is even worse than a quagmire in Iraq only. I don't see anyway out. If we stay, we're screwed; if we leave, we're screwed.

Other than the corporate plants, like Chalibi, there is no commonality among the different tribes. They will in no way stand as one. But W's corporate buds got their payoffs big time. That is what his (s)election was all about.

Everyone knew ahead of time about the Kurdish desires for independence. How could they not have seen this coming? And if the Kurds really do move toward independence, which it surely sounds like they are planning to do, that will create a conflagration in the area that will make the current problems seem like a great fun time by comparison.

Here is the latest about the Kurdish independence plans:
<snip>
Motorola... and Magalcom Communications and Computers have won contracts with the Kurdish government to the tune of hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars.

The flagship of the contracts is the construction of an international airport in the northern Kurdish city of Ibril, a stepping stone towards the fulfillment of Kurdish national aspirations for independence." (emphasis mine)<unsnip>
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3177712,00.html

This will be an unmitigated disaster.

before the war.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/attack/2003/0314kurdturk.htm
Kurd-Turk Rivalry Threatens US Plans for Iraq
By Ilene R. Prusher
Christian Science Monitor
March 14, 2003

<snip>
...two of Washington's key allies could wind up fighting each other instead of the forces of Saddam Hussein - not exactly what the US had in mind when it drew up plans for regime change in Iraq. But in the arithmetic of pre-war diplomacy, Turks and Kurds are stuck in a zero-sum game. So far, the US hasn't found a formula to convince the old adversaries that one side's gain doesn't have to be the other's loss. "When the Americans tilt a little this way, toward the Kurds, Turkey is really bothered and gets nervous. When the US tilts toward Turkey and keeps the Kurds out, Kurds get irritated," says Dr. Dogu Ergil, a political sociologist at Ankara University. "Both sides are living in fear of each other."<unsnip>

I mispoke, and stand corrected. They WERE told, they just wouldn't listen.

One of the reasons Turkey balked at joining the Coalition of the Bribed? Fear that a Kurdish state would likely arise from the chaos of a post-Saddam Iraq, and threaten the Turkish government's control (ability to ruthlessly persecute may be a better term for it) of it's ethnic Kurds?