Preface:
“Ottoman rule ended with World War I, and Iraq came to be administered by the British Empire as Mandatory Iraq until the establishment of the Kingdom of Iraq in 1933. A republic was established in 1958 following a coup d’état. It was controlled by Saddam Hussein from 1979 to 2003, into which period falls the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War. Saddam Hussein was deposed following the 2003 US-led invasion of the country. Over the following years, Iraq came to the brink of civil war, and the situation deteriorated after the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011. By 2015, Iraq was effectively divided, the central and southern part being controlled by the government, the northwest by the Kurdistan Regional Government and the western part by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.” – Wikipedia
Enough already of blinding ourselves to the fact that the so called nation of Iraq was a mistake that grew out of the drawing of arbitrary boundaries at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 by Western leaders both ignorant and careless of the aspirations and requirements of the diversity of peoples effected.
From the outset of the Obama administration, Vice President Joe Biden has been an advocate of dividing Iraq into three regions, one of those being Kurdish.
Here is an excerpt from today’s New York Time’s article “Sinjar Victory Bolsters Kurds, but Could Further Alienate U.S. From Iraq”
“Now, with Kurdish forces backed by American air power driving jihadist fighters out of Sinjar on Friday, the United States-led coalition appears to have a new and important victory against the Islamic State, also known asISIS or ISIL.
“But it may come with a cost: the further undermining of the Iraqi government’s authority, and intensified concern about the Kurds’ desire for independence. Political figures in Baghdad are again sounding alarmed, both about the United States’ reliability as an ally and about the unity of country.
“The Kurdish capture of Sinjar, with no Iraqi military forces in sight, offers the Kurdistan Regional Government a chance to claim control over a city that before the Islamic State invasion was nominally under the control of Baghdad.”
The Kurds have long been allies of the West and especially of the United States. They also are fighters, have oil revenue, and are not plagued with destabilizing governmental corruption.
They share many of our values and are prepared to fight ISIS, as they demonstrated with their victory this week in Sinjar, Syria.
Of course, Kurdish successes upset the Turks who are afraid of an uprising of their own Kurdish populations. Perhaps the Turks can learn from the Canadians and instead of relegating Kurdish citizens to second class status and persecuting their leaders, work out a type of relationship as the Canadians have done with the French Canadians.
And if indeed the Kurdish region wants to depart, then follow the precedent of the peaceful separation of Czechoslovakia into the Czech and Slovak Republics.
Let’s accept the reality on the ground and support the Kurds. Then we will be in a position to effectively drive ISIS out of Syria and Iraq.
