A Kurdistan Solution for Iraq

Originally composed: 20 October 2006

There has been no paucity of pundits, book dealers, administration officials, and the usual political machinations, as to how the United States and it’s coalition partners are “losing” the war in Iraq and what is now the best solution for the Iraqi conflict.

The Bush Administration has made it easy to oppose this conflict. “Stay the course” is a bankrupt military strategy. It can be a useful political strategy, but only when common perception validates the strategy. Reality and a careful and thoughtful understanding of Iraq invalidate the Bush Administration’s scheme. There was a worthy policy objective -- taking the War on Terrorism to the Jihadists in their own backyard, freeing the majority Shia and Kurdish populations from a brutal and genocidal dictator, and perhaps ridding the world from weapons of mass destruction. But, a worthy policy with puny results is a classic failure of implementation. One has to wonder whom did the implementation estimate for this mess. Still, we are where we are, and the question now is what is to be done.

Peter Galbraith has posited that the best United States strategy for Iraq was the concentration of US forces on the part of Iraq where the US mission has succeeded - Kurdistan. Kurdistan is the right solution to this conflict. Here are the reasons why.
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First, military bases in Kurdistan can be used to launch strikes (or conduct a campaign) in Iraq and if necessary throughout the Middle East. A powerful US presence would also serve as a deterrent to others in the region with expansionist intentions.

Second, it would support a new democratic republic in the Middle East. Democracy is not given to a people - the people win it. The Kurds seem to be the only group in Iraq who stand where they sit. A secure Kurdistan (Mosul Province) also would serve as a model for what success looks like.

Third, reducing our exposure and concentrating our troops in Kurdistan, will be less costly than our current failed strategy of being everywhere and nowhere and waiting for the “Iraqi Army” to bring peace and stability to a Nation in name only. It is now quite clear that the Bush Administration does not have the will to win this conflict. Allowing your enemy to use civilian neighborhoods as safe-havens is a no-win fate. It is illogical to believe that you can fight and destroy your enemy while simultaneously protect the “noncombatants” who are themselves hostile to US and coalition forces. The Russians understand this and so too do the Israelis.

Fourth, the hell with what Turkey thinks - they have had every opportunity for partnership and constructive intervention in the region and have never failed to miss an opportunity. It’s long over due for Turkey to support its NATO partner(s). No matter what they wish to think - Kurds are not Turks and Mosul does not belong to Turkey.

And, in the last analysis, there is no compelling historic justification for modern day Iraq. The 1919 Paris Peace Conference and subsequently the San Remo Conference in April of 1920 laid the groundwork for an Iraqi nation. Before 1919 there was no Iraq. There was no Iraqi nationalism and no Iraqi identity. There was what the British called Mesopotamia - referring to the Ottoman Empire’s provinces of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra. It was not until 1922 that the League of Nations confirmed statehood on Iraq that it became a Nation and legal entity. In 1932 Iraq joined the League of Nations. Hence, the partition of Iraq between the Kurds (Mosul), Sunni (Baghdad), and Shia (Basra), is not only a pragmatic solution to help end the Iraqi conflict, it is a historical imperative to correct past indiscretions and the myth of a greater Arabia. To believe that Kurds, Sunni, and Shia can live peacefully together contradicts every realty.

Just as Bosnia became a failed state when Muslims, Serbs, and Croatians, where provided the excuse and means to choose the conditions under which they wished to live - similarly the Kurds, Sunni, and Shia, are doing so in Iraq today.

Hence, a solution to the Iraqi conflict is to partition the country and let the “Iraqi people” construct a new compact to determine their own destiny based on historic and current realities.