The US military may have withdrawn from Iraq, but the biggest US policy decision on the nation may be yet to come, in the form of a potential administration endorsement for Kurdish secession.
Dispute between the increasingly unpopular Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have gotten ever closer to outright military conflict. Kurdish leaders have suggested the only reason Maliki is still buying arms from the US is because he envisions attacking Kurdistan and eliminating its semi-autonomous status, and needs better gear to stand up to the KRG’s Peshmearga fighters.
The US has always supported Kurdistan, to a point. The shift to openly backing secession would be a big one, but the financial incentives for such a shirt could be significant, with the central government and KRG fighting over oil revenue, and the KRG’s deals increasingly benefiting US corporations at the expense of Iraqi contracts.
That may seem cynical but is not out of keeping with historical US policy in the region, which has centered around oil. Maliki’s role as an ally of Iran might provide yet another excuse to cut him loose in favor of an independent Kurdistan and lucrative deals for Exxon-Mobil.
The interventionist American Enterprise Institute has also issued a policy paper suggesting they believe the time for such a shift is nearing, saying that a successful transition of power after the next Kurdish elections could be presented as proof the Kurds “deserve” independence in the estimation of the US.
The prime mover against Kurdish independence has always been Turkey, but with peace talks progressing with the PKK, that obstacle may well be removed soon as well, setting the stage for the US jumping on board the break-up of Iraq after spending massive amounts of money and troops desperately trying to keep the nation together.
Having failed to tie up Iraqi oil in their illconcieved war on Iraq this is another opportunity to salvage some return for all the treasure wasted on the war in Iraq.
America is very good on these backdoor deals and since there is NOONE with any morals in the US Administration this is a good way of feathering their nests.
Why isn't Facebook an option to post comments?
"The US military may have withdrawn from Iraq, "
It might have? But it hasn't. I'm joining The Common Ills in calling out the lies. All US troops never left Iraq to begin with and last fall Barack Obama sent another unit of Special Ops into Iraq. This was reported by the New York Times. In December, Iraq and the US signed a MOU for joint-exercises. This was reported only by The Common Ills at that time.
Last month's Congressional Research Service report on Iraq covered both of the above in their report for Congress.
Links for all this and more can be found in this Common Ills post: http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2013/05/tom-dis…
Jason Ditz, please stop saying that all US troops are out of Iraq when they are not.
Bummer..thought my original post printed…alas.
Kurds, kurds kurds and away! Note the sympathetic tint in the reporting. US citizens long propaganda to support the Kurds. Hitto is a Kurd, go think?
Turks first used Kurds to run roughshod over the Armenians…promised Kurd Autonomy as exchange. Pretty Armenian girls kidnapped enslaved to Turks, Germans (shh), 'assimilated'….Ah, but then the Turks went back on their word…and over the decades have tried to eradicate the Kurds. Language, culture illegal..Oh then came the no-fly zone by US -save the Kurds…right.
Now its save the Kurds again. This time PKK is allegedly pushed out of Turkey. Ah, alas. Does Turkey finally get its ethnic cleansing via US pretty boy JohnKerry? heh.
if only the Turks could rid of their problem in Adana and Hatay. But alas, the Turks under Erdogan are left stupid and violent. And the Americans like the French (and Brits too) 100yr back are trying to get ethnic and/or religious groups be they Greek, Armenian, or Alawite, or Arab…to fight on behalf of their Anglo-Franco-American interests….
Oh, but the headline is not that is it? It's:
Will America back Kurdish "independence"?
status quo president
The real goal of USrael in the Middle East (idea borrow from the good old Empire of GB): Divide and conquer.
Small ethnically and religuously divided islamic world (hating each other); the perfect situation to expand Greater Israel and to plunder the oil, gas and cultural heritage sites.
Old plan.