NEW YORK TIMES: the Iraqi government agreed Tuesday to a long-term accord with the autonomous Kurdish region to share the country’s oil wealth and military resources in a far-reaching deal that helps reunite the country in the face of a bitter war with Islamic extremists.
The deal settles a long dispute between Baghdad and Erbil, the Kurdish capital in the north, over oil revenue and budget payments. It is also likely to halt a drive — at least in the short term — by the Kurds for an independent state, which appeared imminent this summer after a violent territory grab by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL…
“Now the priority really is to confront ISIS,” Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq’s finance minister, said in an interview Tuesday after emerging from the cabinet meeting to complete the deal after several days of talks… (more)
EDITOR: In the long run, this is likely to do far more to unite Iraq as one nation, defeat ISIS, and mitigate the various problems in the Middle East than two hundred thousand American troops.
When we are not overextended but instead are strong, diplomacy can be our most effective weapon.
To use an old chess quote: ”The threat is mightier than the execution” – Aaron Nimzowitsch.
