KurdistanObserver.com
U.S. And The Kurds / Washington Has Forgotten Them
Haaretz
By Zvi Bar'el Aug 13, 2007
SULAIMANI, Southern Kurdistan - It began as a natural alliance, a political love
affair. But after four years of American presence in Iraq, the amicable dialogue
between the U.S. and the Iraqi Kurds is growing increasingly discordant. Beyond
the culture gap, Iraqi Kurdistan is beginning to feel betrayed by its American
allies.
"Between you and me, no one beats the Americans when it comes to rudeness and
sheer gall," my driver comments, upon seeing a convoy of four cars without
license plates ahead of us on the road from Sulaimani to Erbil - the capital of
Iraqi Kurdistan. "Look at their driving," he says. The last car, acting as a
rear guard, keeps other cars from bypassing. The convoy leader, meanwhile,
pushes the cars ahead of the convoy off the road, to the shoulder.
Etiquette, however, is the least of the Kurds' grievances. Senior politicians
and opinion-shapers in the Kurdish community generally agree that the Americans
were once valuable allies in the fight against former Iraqi dictator Saddam
Hussein. They also agree that the Americans are starting to turn their backs on
the Kurds' cause. The latest example of this was seen in the words of U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rica. Referring to the rights of the Iraqi Kurds,
Rice said that the Kurds' best security guarantee comes not from the United
States, but from the Iraqi constitution.
The Kurds - along with the warring Sunni and Shi'ite factions - are quite
certain that Iraq is no longer a unified entity. "There is a civil war going on,
but no one will admit to it," a party newspaper editor tells me. "We're all
pretending in order to gain favors from [U.S. President George] Bush."
The journalist explains that Kurds cannot travel to Iraq's other districts. "The
Shi'ites have their own standing army, and the Kurds too. And that's in addition
to all the private militias."
The Kurds dream of seceding, but this is unlikely to happen. Any sign of Kurdish
independence triggers a Turkish, Iranian and Syrian backlash. Tehran, Istanbul
and Damascus are afraid of an Iraqi precedent that would agitate their domestic
Kurdish communities.
And so, Washington is striving to make Kurdistan dependent on the Iraqi
government and neighboring countries by withholding assistance for a separate
Kurdish industrial infrastructure. The assumption is that the Kurds will accept
this and not revolt.
