Kurds in Iraqi army proclaim loyalty to militia

[robertpaulsen]

Posted on Tue, Dec. 27, 2005


Kurds in Iraqi army proclaim loyalty to militia

By Tom Lasseter
Knight Ridder Newspapers

KIRKUK, Iraq - Kurdish leaders have inserted more than 10,000 of their militia members into Iraqi army divisions in northern Iraq to lay the groundwork to swarm south, seize the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and possibly half of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, and secure the borders of an independent Kurdistan.

Five days of interviews with Kurdish leaders and troops in the region suggest that U.S. plans to bring unity to Iraq before withdrawing American troops by training and equipping a national army aren't gaining traction. Instead, some troops that are formally under U.S. and Iraqi national command are preparing to protect territory and ethnic and religious interests in the event of Iraq's fragmentation, which many of them think is inevitable.

The soldiers said that while they wore Iraqi army uniforms they still considered themselves members of the Peshmerga - the Kurdish militia - and were awaiting orders from Kurdish leaders to break ranks. Many said they wouldn't hesitate to kill their Iraqi army comrades, especially Arabs, if a fight for an independent Kurdistan erupted.

"It doesn't matter if we have to fight the Arabs in our own battalion," said Gabriel Mohammed, a Kurdish soldier in the Iraqi army who was escorting a Knight Ridder reporter through Kirkuk. "Kirkuk will be ours."

more...

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/13495329.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

[mom cat]

1. US oil companies will profit from a fragmented Iraq.

Just move along, nothing to see here at all.

[acmavm]

2. I don't think that the US anything will profit from the outcome of the

division of Iraq. Even the Kurds will want total control, they will not want to take order from US oil companies.

Isn't Norway already gaining oil concessions from the Kurds?

[Sandpiper]

6. A Kurdish State would be very bad for the US

As Turkey, one of our strongest middle eastern allies, has said that it will not tolerate a Kurdish State on its border.

If Turkey was to invade a fledgling Kurdish State, as it most likely would, our current troubles in Iraq would seem a happy memory in comparison.

[damntexdem]

3. Oh, what a total surprise! A people who have long struggled ...

for independence have allegience to their own cause rather than to a fake country.

[cantstandbush]

4. This is precisely why Saddam had to fight with the Kurds, yet he was

labeled a dictator, never mind he was trying to protect his own country. Not any worse than the other dictators we propped up.

[Historic NY]

5. Folks that why the Iraq Army will never standup..........

tribal loyalties over country. We are there forever or until they kill us off.

[Sandpiper]

7. Iraq was an unfortunate creation of Imperialism

Where three historically hostile groups were thrown together within the same border.

Saddam was the strongman who held it all together by force and intimidation.

The US has now assumed that role. As soon as we leave, Iraq will fall to pieces.

[Historic NY]

8. The Brits screwed up the entire region......

with their map making divisions.

[H2O Man]

13. Historically distinct groups.

The worst potential events in the Middle East are becoming a historically distinct possibility, thanks to the insanity of the neoconservatives.

[Roland99]

9. A complete and utter repeat of the fall of Feisal II in 1958 in Iraq.

If true, and if the Kurds pull it off, it will be a remarkable repeat of Iraqi history. In 1958, almost the exact same thing happened. A heterogeneous Iraqi Army (thought to congeal support for the monarchy via its diversity) ended up being a force of people swayed by radical and nationalistic ideals. The fall of Feisal II was accomplished by no more than 3,000 soldiers. Iraq would likely have moved toward a stable government that offered to the average Iraqi what Chavez (Venezuela) and Morales (Bolivia) have and are offering to their people. However, just 8 weeks later, the Ba'athist coup took place and Iraq fell back into authoritarian control.

Should the Kurds pull this off, step back and watch the fireworks as it's not gonna be pretty.

[madmark]

10. Self-Determination is always the right way to go; and if that's

what the Kurds want, independence, that's their perogative. Of course, they defacto had that before Bush pissed away our 2,200 service people, 500 billion + dollars, and our international goodwill and created a jihadi training ground and recruiting tool.

[xchrom]

11. destabilization at work.

since that's what we're geting -- i assume that's what bushco wants.

[TomClash]

12. Kurds plan to invade South

Kurds plan to invade South

December 28, 2005

By Tom Lasseter Knight Ridder

KIRKUK, Iraq — Kurdish leaders have inserted more than 10,000 of their militia members into Iraqi army divisions in northern Iraq to lay the groundwork to swarm south, seize the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and possibly half of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, and secure the borders of an independent Kurdistan.

Five days of interviews with Kurdish leaders and troops in the region suggest that U.S. plans to bring unity to Iraq before withdrawing American troops by training and equipping a national army aren't gaining traction. Instead, some troops that are formally under U.S. and Iraqi national command are preparing to protect territory and ethnic and religious interests in the event of Iraq's fragmentation, which many of them think is inevitable.

The soldiers said that while they wore Iraqi army uniforms they still considered themselves members of the Peshmerga — the Kurdish militia — and were awaiting orders from Kurdish leaders to break ranks. Many said they wouldn't hesitate to kill their Iraqi army comrades, especially Arabs, if a fight for an independent Kurdistan erupted.

"It doesn't matter if we have to fight the Arabs in our own battalion," said Gabriel Mohammed, a Kurdish soldier in the Iraqi army who was escorting a Knight Ridder reporter through Kirkuk. "Kirkuk will be ours."


http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051228/NEWS/512280371/1002/NEWS01

[cal04]

14. Sey Hersh had an article on this

The Iraqi Kurdish leadership was furious when, early this month, the United States acceded to a U.N. resolution on the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty that did not affirm the interim constitution that granted the minority Kurds veto power in any permanent constitution. Kurdish leaders immediately warned President Bush in a letter that they would not participate in a new Shiite-controlled government unless they were assured that their rights under the interim constitution were preserved. “The people of Kurdistan will no longer accept second-class citizenship in Iraq,” the letter said.

There are fears that the Kurds will move to seize the city of Kirkuk, together with the substantial oil reserves in the surrounding region. Kirkuk is dominated by Arab Iraqis, many of whom were relocated there, beginning in the nineteen-seventies, as part of Saddam Hussein’s campaign to “Arabize” the region, but the Kurds consider Kirkuk and its oil part of their historic homeland. “If Kirkuk is threatened by the Kurds, the Sunni insurgents will move in there, along with the Turkomen, and there will be a bloodbath,” an American military expert who is studying Iraq told me. “And, even if the Kurds do take Kirkuk, they can’t transport the oil out of the country, since all of the pipelines run through the Sunni-Arab heartland.”

A top German national-security official said in an interview that “an independent Kurdistan with sufficient oil would have enormous consequences for Syria, Iran, and Turkey” and would lead to continuing instability in the Middle East—no matter what the outcome in Iraq is. There is also a widespread belief, another senior German official said, that some elements inside the Bush Administration—he referred specifically to the faction headed by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz—would tolerate an independent Kurdistan.

[Roland99]

15. Here's a link to that article >>>>

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040628fa_fact

[robertpaulsen]

16. Kick

:kick:

[Moderator]

17. kick

[modrepub]

18. Mixed loyalties divide Iraqi army

By Tom Lasseter
Inquirer Foreign Staff

KIRKUK, Iraq - Kurdish leaders say they have inserted more than 10,000 of their militia members into Iraqi army divisions in northern Iraq to lay the groundwork to swarm the south, seize the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, and secure the borders of an independent Kurdistan.

Five days of interviews with Kurdish leaders and troops in the region suggest that U.S. plans to bring unity to Iraq before withdrawing American troops by training and equipping a national Iraqi army are gaining no traction. Instead, some Kurdish troops formally under U.S. and Iraqi national command are preparing to protect territory and ethnic and religious interests in the event of Iraq's fragmentation, which many of them say they think is inevitable.

The soldiers said that although they wore Iraqi army uniforms, they considered themselves members of the peshmerga - the Kurdish militia - and were awaiting orders from Kurdish leaders to break ranks.

<more>

link: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/13504148.htm

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Sounds like civil war to me

[KG]

19. gee, what thinking person didn't see this coming?

:eyes: