Posted on 11/01/2006 12:44:00 PM PST by lowbridge
Kurdish Commander Wants Permanent U.S. Base in Northern Iraq
Elaine M. Grossman | 31 Oct 2006 Inside the Pentagon
The commander of a major faction of Kurdish troops in Iraq says he would welcome the establishment of a permanent American military facility in northern Iraq, where Kurds are the dominant ethnic group.
"We highly support building a U.S. military base in Kurdistan," says Mustafa Said Qadir, deputy commander of "peshmerga" militia forces in northern Iraq and a senior member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) political party. "We [Kurds] all agree on that and we think it's very important."
His comments, offered early this month via e-mail in response to questions from Inside the Pentagon, came after Congress moved in late September to ban any such permanent U.S. facilities in the Persian Gulf nation. The fiscal year 2007 Defense Appropriations Act, which President Bush signed into law Sept. 29, includes a provision that prohibits spending "to establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States armed forces in Iraq."
Critics have called on the administration to address Iraqi insurgent and population concerns about a long-term occupation by clearly disavowing any interest in permanent basing.
But at a press conference Oct. 25, Bush would not rule out the possibility.
"Any decisions about permanency in Iraq will be made by the Iraqi government," the president told reporters. "Remember, when you're talking about bases and troops, we're dealing with a sovereign government. Now, we entered into an agreement with the Karzai government [in Afghanistan]. They weren't called permanent bases, but they were called arrangements that will help this government understand that there will be a U.S. presence so long as they want them there.
"And at the appropriate time," Bush continued, "I'm confident we'll be willing to sit down and discuss, you know, the long-term security of Iraq."
Despite White House protests, there are growing bipartisan calls in Washington to scale back the U.S. troop presence in Iraq. Some opinion leaders support the establishment of a geographic partition along ethnic and religious lines, among them: Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), ranking minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations; and Peter Galbraith, a former State Department official.
Sectarian violence in Iraq has risen sharply despite a change in strategy this summer that bolstered U.S. forces in the Baghdad area. The United States has 141,000 troops in Iraq.
In the past, Bush administration leaders have said there are no plans to establish permanent bases in Iraq. But in public statements they have never clearly ruled out the possibility.
Asked about the prospect by a Marine at a "town hall meeting" in Fallujah last December, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, "We have no idea, but at the moment there are no plans for permanent bases here in this country."
In March, Zalmay Khalilzad, the Bush administration's ambassador to Baghdad, was quoted as saying on Iraqi television that the United States had "no goal of establishing permanent bases in Iraq."
Though the United States has turned over dozens of bases to the new Iraqi military, it has also continued to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into construction at a handful of installations occupied by U.S. forces, including Balad air base and logistics center north of Baghdad, al-Asad air base in the western desert, and Tallil air base in the southeast.
The Congressional Research Service reported last year the spending appears to suggest plans for a long-term U.S. presence. But a Pentagon spokesman said last spring the bases are being built for the Iraqis.
In his response to questions, Qadir also said the PUK is working with the Kurdistan Democratic Party, with whom his group has forged a sometimes uneasy alliance, to integrate their separate militias. The PUK dominates eastern Kurdistan while the larger KDP is centered in the west.
"We have a plan and [have] moved towards reuniting the peshmerga forces of Kurdistan, and establishing a force for protecting the Kurdistan region according to the Iraqi constitution," Qadir said.
"Along with the recent, ongoing merger of the PUK and KDP ministries in general, this is yet another sign of a stabilizing and maturing region capable of standing on its own two legs," says one U.S. Army officer in the region, speaking on condition of anonymity.
But the idea has raised concerns in Turkey and Iran, where some believe peshmerga integration is a significant step toward a fully independent Kurdish state, according to experts.
The Turkish military has long battled the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Kurdish militant group, along the border with Iraq. And Turkey's leaders have expressed serious concern about a Kurdish nationalist movement that could destabilize its eastern region. In August, artillery shells fired from Iran hit remote Kurdish villages, killing at least two civilians and injuring more.
The Kurdish general brushed aside worries that an integrated militia could prove destabilizing to the region.
"Providing the Kurdish rights is the best guarantee for [stability], because Kurds have been persecuted for a long time and we never tyrannized anyone," Qadir said. "We are peaceful and seeking . . . democracy and only our rights."
Merging the two militias is "part of the integration of the two [Kurdish party] governments," says Henri Barkey, a State Department policy-planning official during the Clinton administration. But the desire for a permanent U.S. base in Kurdistan constitutes "hedging" against future violence, he says.
"Anyone looking at the situation in Iraq would say you need to prepare for that eventuality," Barkey told ITP in an Oct. 24 interview. "Having an American base is the best insurance policy they can get against the neighbors doing something against them, or the Shias or Sunnis going against them."
Now chairman of the international relations department at Lehigh University, Barkey called the latter possibility "unlikely." But he added, "If you're a Kurd, you have to worry about it."
The thriving Kurdish community in northern Iraq has been a boon to Turkey, even as its military maintains a presence on both sides of the Iraqi border to counter PKK activity, according to regional experts.
"Turkey certainly is reaping the huge economic benefits from the most stable and prosperous -- by far -- region in Iraq," says the Army officer in the region. "It would all be put at risk by [any] significant military action by Turkey against the Kurdish villages. . . . Reasonable minds on both sides of the border see this, but not everybody is reasonable."
The Turkish military "cares little about the economic ties," he said.
"The Kurds have every right to be independent," says Najmaldin Karim, president of the Washington Kurdish Institute. "After all, the Kurds are the largest group in the world not to have an independent state. It is the hope of every Kurd to have that."
A Kurdish state may be in the cards only if Iraq fractures, he told ITP in a late-August interview.
"Circumstances do not currently permit" an independent Kurdish nation, Karim said. "But if the circumstances permit, sure, I think it will happen," he said.
A Kurdish state??? That's the horse to back!
sounds good to me.
course it will make the cut and run Dems mad.
As the stragglers rejoined us in the meadow, the Kurds lit up cigarettes, and we told jokes about the Saudis, glutting ourselves on the perfect air. And in a pause between rounds of laughter, I learned from one of the other men that the sergeant who had kept up with me - out of pride and to protect me, if necessary - hadn't just been shot once through the jaw. He had been wounded 20 different times.
My attempt to impress the Kurds had been stupid. And thoughtlessly cruel. It must have cost that sergeant real pain to make that brief forced-march. But he had smiled all the way.
When we said goodbye later on, the sergeant touched his heart and told me, "You are an American. You are my brother. I would die for you."
He meant it.
http://www.porphyrogenitus.net/archives/week_2004_04_11.html#002355
Strategically this would be a brilliant move for the United States to have a base in Northern Iraq!!!
The Kurds are quality people and deserve our unstinting assistance.
Big time! And, from day one, the Kurdish people have appreciated the sacrifices we have made on their behalf. They seem to be true and genuine allies.
Sounds like a win-win!
bump
Kurds: if you build, we will come.
Even a couple of years ago, NBC Nightly News (on a Saturday) goofed
up and had a segment about how the Kurdish area of Iraq was prospering
after the USA "invasion".
Making some sort of long-time arrangement with the Kurds is really
something that should be pursued. Even if the Turks are miffed at it.
Kurdistan: The Other Iraq
http://www.theotheriraq.com/
http://www.theotheriraq.com/press.html
we can't walk away from them...
Works for me.
The Kurds are feared and despised by by the surrounding nationalities. Even in the US, immigrants from the countries with Kurd popluations look down on the Kurds.
I kinda like the idea of teaming up with folks who are feared and despised. We supply the firepower and they contribute as much as possible to the fear factor.
I think that we can spare a few billion dollars to purchase a few square miles of Kurdistan. Better than just giving it away as foreign aid.
How about purchasing some Kurdistan land and making it soverign US territory. The US can place a permanent US military base in sovereign US territory and not violate the 2007 Defense Appropriations Act. :D
Nah. If they want us to colonize them, they should petition their government to join the United States, and put that before a Kurdish referendum. Otherwise, we might not be wanted.
Better to just have them sell us a piece of property. Each side gets what they want.
Interesting idea, but...no.
The Kurds are appreciative of what America has done. And I believe that they would be a very valuable ally and trading partner. But they are still Muslims, and I would hate to have the same problem that France has had with Algerians and immigration.
Irbil (Arbil) would do well for a US base, a great new airstrip was completed. The Kurds loved us there, and we had mutual respect for each other, god bless em. Especially the Christians in Ainkawa, a small part of Irbil!!
Stationed in Irbil 04-05
SSG Jake
bump
The Kurds seek a permanent US military presence to ward off the larger tribes in the area and promote their own hopes of nationhood. The prosperity and stability that the bases bring are a welcome side affect.
Don't kid yourself--a Kurdish state exists right this very minute. Just because you don't see it on a map doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Good points. The Kurds have shown themselves capable of organizing themselves in a peaceful and democratic way. That in itself is enough to earn them the ire of the governments of their neighbors.
At the least, it's something to hold over the current Iraqi government.
Haven't seen you around before.
Considering your sign up date and your profile page, you must be busy.
Tip of the spear against a Turkish and Iran pincer assault?
Ping.
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