An Iraqi soldier rides in the back of a truck in convoy of Peshmerga milita and Iraqi army soldiers in Kirkuk, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Posted on 02/19/2007 12:38:58 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
KIRKUK, Iraq - Lt. Hiwa Raouf Abdul is not supposed to be in Kirkuk. The oil-rich city, which many fear is teetering on the brink of civil war, is off-limits to Kurdish Peshmerga militia members.
And yet, on Tuesday, the slender, 26-year-old Peshmerga officer breezed through one checkpoint after the next on his way into Kirkuk, exchanging waves and salutes with Iraqi army soldiers and policemen as he rode with a truckload of Peshmerga gunmen.
Abdul is stationed in the nearby Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, where the Peshmerga enforce strict security through a series of checkpoints, and his visit to Kirkuk came only because his commanders asked him to escort a reporter there.
But the ease with which a pickup truck carrying seven Peshmerga members, most of them wielding AK-47s, passed into Kirkuk says volumes about the challenge of pacifying flashpoint towns like Kirkuk and, ultimately, Iraq.
When he passed by the Iraqi army checkpoint on the edge of Kirkuk, Abdul looked at the soldiers saluting him and said, "They get their orders from the Iraqi army, but their loyalty is to the Kurds, to us."
As with Shiite militias in Baghdad, the line between militia members and Iraqi security troops in Kirkuk is so thin that it at times doesn't exist. And U.S. plans to build Iraq's security forces - a process that has cost more than $15 billion nationwide - seem to have strengthened militias instead of discouraging them.
The issue of loyalty with Iraqi security forces is proving to be the Achilles' heel of American plans to stabilize the war-torn nation. Without neutral Iraqi soldiers and police, an American withdrawal would almost certainly lead to greater sectarian bloodshed than Iraq is currently experiencing.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
An Iraqi soldier rides in the back of a truck in convoy of Peshmerga milita and Iraqi army soldiers in Kirkuk, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Sobering.
Expect Turkey to join the war effort...
If we gave the Kurds their complete autonomy, and gave them recognition that they owned Kirkuk, and armed them to the teeth, I'll bet we'd have one heck of an ally in the ME.
Regardless what happens in Iraq, the Kurds deserve our full support..
They're the only ones over there that seem to get the whole idea of economic opportunity, capitalism, democracy, etc..
Good for us and the Kurds. Kirkuk belongs to the Kurds, and (sorry for those innocents caught in the fighting) I have zero sympathy for the Turks and Arabs (politically). A strong Kurdistan (as an authonous region, yet not a state) will be good for our strategic interests in the region. BTW the Kurds have proven to be worth of our support, something most other Muslim people have yet to do.
How about a Turkish or Iranian invasion?
Target practice!
-ccm
That's why we should arm them extensively and station troops there. I'm sure we can make a deal with the Turks (i.e. a Kurdish agreement to reject seperatism in Turkey, or trade preferences for Turkey).
Regarding Iran: We sooner or later have to face them. So an Iranian invasion in Kurdistan, with American troops there, would call for an American response, which would finally be the end of the Iranian threat.
(BTW only if we won't have a Leftist surrender monkey for President then.)
Most Kurds would want independence, but (at least) their leaders are realistic about it. Talabani recnetly said that he dreams of Kurdish independnce, but it wouldn't be realizable.
A strong authonomy is feasible however. And I have no doubt we will build bases there and station US troops. At least that would be the sane thing to do. However the democrat traitors aren't sane.
[How about a Turkish or Iranian invasion?]
If we ever did arm, and ally ourselves with the Kurds, and recognize their independence, etc... we'd be living in a parallel universe, anyway.
Since our government is made up of the cowardly vs the abjectly cowardly, it'll never happen.
I'm just daydreaming.
But if we had a tough government, willing to do what it takes to fight a global war, and win it, the Turks and Iranians would be toast if they tried anything.
Agreed!
No. the situation would be even worse and you would have one heck of a real cival war.
The Turks will get pissed off.
They should relocate all of the Kurds from Iran and Turkey to Iraq. Then drive the Suni's into Syria and the Shiites into Iran and just let the Kurds have Iraq. Lets draw the lines with a bold marker!!!
The Kurdish government was set up with the help of Gen Garner, the same person who was sent to Iraq to help form the civilian government after the liberation. But it seems the State Department(read Colin Powell) insisted it should be done by the State Department instead of the Pentagon. Hence, the reign of Paul Bremer and the decline into the hell it became. Can you imagine what Iraq would look like today if Gen Garner had been allowed to do what he did in Kurdistan?
The idea of maintianing a single Iraq nation was one of the biggest failures of the early Bush strategy. The country should be split into 3 parts, with a weak federal government.
The other failure, of course, was a politically correct conduct of the war.
Not one faction is strong enough to conquer Iraq and rule it with an Iron Fist at this point.
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