The leader of Iraq’s Kurds said his forces won’t relinquish territory they are defending against Sunni rebels, adding to worries that continued fighting could speed the breakup of Iraq along ethnic and religious lines.
After Sunni insurgents led by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham launched their military offensive in northern Iraq three weeks ago, Kurdish fighters stepped into the breach left by the Baghdad government’s ineffective and retreating armed forces.
On Friday, Massoud Barzani, president of Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, said that control of Kirkuk and other towns now guarded by Kurdish forces wouldn’t revert to the central government in Baghdad when the crisis subsides.
“Now this [issue]…is achieved,” he said, alluding to the Kurds’ long-running aspiration for self-rule in their northern Iraqi stronghold.
I’m not convinced this is all bad. The Kurds know who’ll defend the territory against invaders and terrorists—and it’s not the Iraqi army. After all, aside from both Shia and Sunni animosity toward the Kurds, the Iraqi “army” is showing it’s not capable of defending much of anything, as their failing attempt to resecure Tikrit is demonstrating.
An aside for Mr Bradley’s benefit: these aren’t “Sunni rebels,” nor are they “Sunni insurgents;” they’re ISIS terrorists. It’d be good to cut out the disingenuous euphemisms and refer to a shovel as the shovel that it is.
I think so to but with the caveat the they support terrorist activity in Turkey. Kurds are every bit as nasty on the terrorist front in Turkey as the other groups are with the west. However, everything else I have been able to judge by them even after Bush senior and Clinton back stabbed them they are friendly to the U.S. especially for Arabs. I just hope this does not cause a war with Turkey. Turkey really does not want a Kurdistan on its border.
Couple things, although generally I agree with you. They are, or have been (maybe not so much now; they can change, and seem to be–as has a certain group in Iran that used to be on our terror list, but was removed some time ago after having mended their ways), reducing their engagement in terror activities in Turkey. Not to justify the terrorism, but Turkey has been mistreating the Kurds as broadly, if not as deeply, as Saddam Hussein used to do.
Related to that, I see two possibilities: to the extent we don’t abuse Kurdish friendship, we can exercise influence over them to get them to temper further/stop engaging altogether in terror activities.
The other thing is that I’m beginning to see (it’s new and uncorroborated) indication that the Turks actually would welcome a Kurdistan, if it’s in Iraq and the Turks can convince the Kurds in Turkey to go there. To the extent that any of that is true, I think the Turkish Kurds would be foolish not to take the deal and go to that Kurdistan: that’s where the exportable resources, and so the money, is.
Eric Hines