Mr. Obama proclaimed the second Iraq War is over. He may be right about US military involvement, at least for now. But he and Mrs. Clinton better not get comfortable, because Iraq War III is about to start.
No sooner then the last American boot on the ground left Iraq, Mr. Nouri al – Maliki, Shia Prime Minister of Iraq, sprang into odious action and issued an arrest warrant for his Sunni Vice President, Mr. Tariq al – Hashimi. If there is any truth to Mr. Maliki’s accusations against Mr. Hashimi – it is essentially a case of ‘the pot calling the kettle black.’ Mr. Maliki’s manifest goal is to eliminate all opposition in Iraq to his rule, even if that means literally “eliminating” his opposition. Of course he waited until the American troops withdrew.
But more importantly, if you think Mr. Maliki took this action and thought this up on his own, you qualify to work for Mrs. Clinton’s State Department. It is Iran who is controlling this gambit. Mr. Maliki is simply the puppet. Iran is pulling the strings.
It should be understood, that Mr. George W. Bush and Ms. Rice allowed the Mullah’s grand plan to hatch, by insisting that Iraq is a sovereign nation. The naïveté of this foreign policy and its continuation under the Obama Administration deserves our opprobrium and contradicts ever reality. It is as if these “elites” have never read history. But they have. They went to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford. Hence, it is not for lack of intelligence, but rather the execution of knowledge and an arrogance, in which they believe they can orchestrate the lives of others deemed inferior.
For now, Mr. Hashimi rests with the Kurds, not with the fishes. Yet, all of this did not have to happen. I wrote the following essay in June 2007. I’m not prophetic, but I have read history, and I am not arrogant.
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.
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 failed strategy of waiting for the “Iraqi Army” to bring peace and stability to a Nation in name only.
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 let the “Iraqi people” construct a new compact to determine their own destiny based on historic and current realities.
