Posted on 06/23/2014 1:37:49 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The trip to Baghdad turned out to be productive, but perhaps too little too late to prevent the disintegration of Iraq. John Kerry succeeded in getting the besieged Iraqis to start working on a better power-sharing arrangement, in hope of producing a unified government in the face of an onslaught by the ISIS terrorist army. All of the main political leaders have committed to seating the new Parliament by July 1 as required by their constitution, and to work together to rebuild sectarian support for the central government:
Kerry on Monday met with top officials from Iraq’s bitterly divided Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish political coalitions during a quick trip to Baghdad.
He said each of the Iraqi officials — including Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (NOO’-ree ahl-MAHL’-ih-kee) — committed to seat the new parliament by July 1 as the constitution requires.
Iraq’s leaders have in the past delayed decisions on how to divide power.
Scolding the fractious Iraqi politicians and military leaders was Kerry’s priority in his trip to Baghdad, but he also held out a potential carrot, too:
“Well, I’m here obviously to convey to you President Obama’s and the American people’s commitment to help Iraq,” Mr. Kerry said. “We have two tracks as you know: One is the security situation and the other is the political situation. And we need to work them in parallel.”
Mr. Kerry then added that the top priority was “for the Iraqi people, for the integrity of the country, its borders, for its sovereignty,” and he said that ISIS was a threat to “all of us.”
The insurgents, Mr. Nujaifi responded, were “a threat to the entire world, and we have to confront it through direct military operations and through political reforms so that we can inject new hope into our own people so that they can support the political process and the unity of Iraq.” …
President Obama is considering carrying out airstrikes against the militants, but the White House does not want to take sides in a sectarian clash in Iraq and, thus, is urging the Iraqis to pull together.
“The United States would like to see the Iraqi people find leadership that is prepared to represent all of the people of Iraq,” Mr. Kerry said during the Sunday stop in Cairo.
Is it too little, too late? It sounds like it is for Kurdish president Masoud Barzani. In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour earlier today, Barzani said that Kurds have spent the past ten years committed to a federal system of democratic government in a united Iraq. They have engaged in the political system, worked with Baghdad despite plenty of disputes over the status of Kirkuk and Mosul, and have defended the country with their Peshmerga — more ably, as it turns out, than the Iraqi military. Now, Barzani says in a thinly-veiled demand for independent nationhood, it’s time to let the Kurds go their own way:
“Iraq is obviously falling apart,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview. “And it’s obvious that the federal or central government has lost control over everything. Everything is collapsing – the army, the troops, the police.”
“We did not cause the collapse of Iraq. It is others who did. And we cannot remain hostages for the unknown,” he said through an interpreter.
“The time is here for the Kurdistan people to determine their future and the decision of the people is what we are going to uphold.” …
“After the recent events in Iraq, it has been proved that the Kurdish people should seize the opportunity now – the Kurdistan people should now determine their future.”
That would be very bad news indeed for Baghdad, and for the Iraqi military, and especially for American efforts to hold Iraq together as a multi-sectarian republic not completely under the thumb of Iran. If the Kurds hit the exits, then there isn’t much reason for the Sunnis to stick around either — and not much reason for Maliki to ask for American assistance, or to get it. The majority Shi’ite government will instead look to Iran for Shi’ite support and fight a sectarian war, with the Kurds on the sidelines fighting ISIS on their own. With Turkey now looking to the Kurds as their “best ally” in the region, independence may be more within their grasp than ever before.
Kerry will meet Barzani in Erbil tomorrow, and may not like what he’ll hear.
Way to go, Kurds. That is how you repay America by breaking up the country we fought to free.
Why did we bother with Operation Iraqi Freedom if Kurds wanted out all along?
Let the Kurds be Kurdistan.
God bless the Kurds... Go luck to them.
Carpe diem, Kurds!
I think they should wait for Obama to solve their problems.
Racists!
Yes!
I know how he feels.
They are shackled to an European-created corpse, and are under no obligation to stay when the reality of the situation is highly negative to their well-being.
So, the Kurds will go their own whey?................
They will grow their own whey!
Iraqi Freedom was against Saadam Hussein. The Kurds were his victims and prisoners.
During the long US occupation of Iraq, not one US troop was lost in Kurdish areas. Not one. The Kurds protected us more than gold.
Iraq needed the Kurds for political stability - to balance the Sunni-Shia rivalry. They gave it a great effort, but it has been sabotaged by seriously bad actors in both the Sunni and Shia communities.
Just as we don’t want to endlessly sacrifice our blood and treasure for the Sunnis and Shia to work things out, neither do the Kurds. Their liberty is on the line as well.
Kurds popularly want to be independent. They deserve it.
They do seem to have made the most out of the situation they're in. Just one question....what happens when this nation of Kurdistan spreads into Turkish regions? Turkey is in NATO. Would NATO be required to defend Turkey's borders?
Entangling alliances have consequences.
This is the unraveling of the Sykes-Picot treaty back into religious and tribal areas that existed before WW-I
Let it happen
Read last week Maliki had requested Kurds’ Peshmerga to come fight ISIS further central & south of Iraq when Arab Iraqis took off without a fight to push back ISIS. Reportedly, Peshmerga responded ‘we are not a force that takes requests’. Incidentally & further reported by media, the Kurds warned both Maliki & the US some 6 months ago about ISIS. Neither one took preventative actions.
They’ll call it another lonely day.................
From the article: With Turkey now looking to the Kurds as their “best ally” in the region, independence may be more within their grasp than ever before.
Turkey and the KRG have had years of economic ties much to the displeasure of Baghdad.
There are Kurdish terrorists like the PKK that have been at war with Turkey since the 1980s. There are Kurds in eastern Turkey who probably would like to merge. There are Mexicans in all the states of the southeast who would like to merge with Mexicorruption. At least for now the Turks and the KRG appear to be getting along together. The PKK is a totally different Turkish - Kurdish issue.
The problem is all Kurds are going to want to be in that nation, and areas where Kurds and Sunnis and/or Shites live together could get sucked into the chaos. If not in Turkey, in those areas of Syria where Kurds live.
The answer would be for ISIS to be eliminated before it spreads. It might already be too late for that. If it is, the world is going to become a very dangerous place....everywhere.
To be clear, PKK has been fighting the Khomeinist regime in Iran too, for decades. But PKK, by no means, has the resources, nor the majority out of all Kurdish political groups. As William of Carmichael said: it is a Kurdish issue. I’m sure the Kurds will deal with PKK, in time & as politically needed.
The Kurds wanted out of their Iraqi servitude LONG before we ever got there. And, Saddam would have killed them all, if he could have found a way to do it quietly and without pointing the finger at himself.
Let the Kurds have their own country. Let them be in charge of their own future. Could not do much worse than the present disaster.
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