"Kirkuk will be ours." Kurd leaders expect Iraq to disintegrate

[kpete]

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."


The Kurds have readied their troops not only because they've long yearned to establish an independent state but also because their leaders expect Iraq to disintegrate, senior leaders in the Peshmerga - literally, "those who face death" - told Knight Ridder. The Kurds are mostly secular Sunni Muslims, and are ethnically distinct from Arabs.

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

[SoCalDem]

1. Once they get control of the oil, they won't stop there

[NMDemDist2]

2. yup, that's why Turkey and Iran are so twitchy about this whole Iraq

debacle

[SoCalDem]

5. The oil revenues will buy them a military..and it might be a better

one than we are trying to build in Iraq. The Kurds are a unified force, and they will be actually defending something they believe in. they have a 13 year track record of actually governing themselves in a modern setting..

If we are smart, we will high-tail it out and let things sort themselves out..Otherwise we will be fighting Kurds and Turks (the kurdish ones). Turkey is not all that fond of us these days, and who knows? they might give autonomy to the Kurdish part of Turkey, and manage to get along with them..

[okieinpain]

10. I'm trying to figure out what makes the kurds think turkey will

sit back and wait on them to build a better army.

[SoCalDem]

11. Turkey might "allow" an autonomous region for them, since

the Kurds encompass about HALF of the country..

[okieinpain]

12. Man, I'm afraid that they will not wait one second, and bring the entire

army down on the kurds. Geez what a fucking mess.

[Warren Stupidity]

18. The Turks spent the 90's killing Kurds in large numbers.

Their efforts make Saddam's Kurd gassing in the 80's just a minor blip in recent Kurd-killing events. It also makes the whole Saddam trial a freaking joke. How about we put the Turkish leaders, and Reagan/Bush-I administration officials in the docket with Saddam et al? This is about as fair as what we did to Manuel Noriega.

[Robeysays]

20. your map seems a little out of date...

soviet union...? but I'm sure it still is correct.

[Gman]

3. We have yet to see the full effects of what we've done

and it won't be pretty.

[Ouabache]

14. Not that our 'media' would interrupt sports or Aruba coverage

to present us the full picture at any particular time.

[acmavm]

4. Well, that's something that the leaders of the Kurds and I both agree

on. But in my honest opinion, I think it's already shattered into pieces. What's going on now is just a big free-for-all with everybody trying to grab whatever they can.

And this I know (and believe me, Mensa is not breaking down my door begging me to join up), there will not be one damn thing left for the thug neos and the oil companies when all hell breaks loose. These dolts haven't done one thing right so far, I don't think that they're going to break their losing now.

And my poor country will be a bankrupt mess because of these traitorous cowards.

[elfin]

6. Went to an Aspen Institute in the 70's

with American Kurdish activists in attendance. First time I ever heard of the issue.

They will NOT give up their goal of independence which has been gathering strength for over generations.

If they can get what they want without the infringement on Turkey (which is doubtful) - Kurdistan will once again assert its place in the region. They have a legitimate position, having been robbed after WWI - and long memories along with some oil resources.

Turkey will expect us to shut them down as their claims extend well within Turkish boundaries - but of all the groups within the artificially constructed Iraq (again post WWI) they are the most competent to establish a stable and productive home rule.

This is a volatile and highly underreported story.

[robertpaulsen]

7. K & R.

:kick:

[me b zola]

8. Oooops, there it is. Meanwhile...

We are being one false reason after another why we should stay in Iraq. It's like pulling a string on a woven fabric, the more you pull, the more the fabric becomes a tattered, tangled mess, with less & less substance to it.


Iraq/GWOT is an enigma wrapped in a pack of lies.

[theHandpuppet]

9. I'm sure the Turks will just love that

Count on yet another war to break out in the region thanks to the Bushreich.

[Hissyspit]

13. Freedom is on the march!

Or something like that.

Whatever.

[BikeWriter]

15. Turkey won't be happy.

[sellitman]

16. Good job bushie! n/t

[Warren Stupidity]

17. Too bad we didn't spend the $500B on alternative energy source development

Instead we spent it, and the lives of 2,000+ of our young men and women, on a fool's mission that is going to result in the political collapse of the entire region. It is not inconceivable that this all ends with nukes flying and oil fields rendered useless. Nice job. Thank you pResident Bush!

By the way, National Geographic ran an article on Kurdistan (aka northern Iraq) this month that pretty much spelled out the same story: the Kurds are quietly preparing for what they view as the inevitable breakup of what was Iraq.

[greiner3]

19. Somebody was just talking about;

Stability in the middle-east. You know we'll (Dems) be blamed for the collapse. Media is on their side and they know the right buttons to push. Maybe the powers that be want the experiment to fail. I can imagine that they see the writing on the wall also.