Government by Militia – Kurdistan

With the heat from the exhaust pipes of departing American forces still lingering in the air, the world has focused on the escalating tensions in Iraq between majority Shiites (in the al-Maliki government) and increasingly disenfranchised Sunnis, who have pulled out of the government as the Shiite-led regime seeks to arrest the most prominent Sunni leader and has invited the militia forces of pro-Iranian Muqtada al-Sadr to participate in the government. Sunni frustration has lead to increases in death and destruction from bombings in Shiite neighborhoods. Western fears that sectarian violence will rip the country apart appear to be very real and really beginning.

But when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered an arrest warrant for that Sunnis leader, Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi, on terrorism charges, where the latter went to seek sanctuary is particularly interesting. If people were fearful of a break-up of Iraq into Sunni and Shiite regions, they seem to have lost focus on the third sector of Iraq, the Kurdish lands in the north, which for all practical purposes have their own independent “government” that has little real connection with Baghdad and the al-Maliki regime. It is critical to note that a good chunk of “Kurdistan” actually slops over into eastern Turkey as well, and the Turks are loath to let its Kurds breakaway under any scenario. And of course, Kurds from both sides of the border seemed to want to unite into a single new nation of Kurdistan.

Saddam Hussein’s Iraq persecuted Kurds mercilessly, seeking to crush their desire for autonomy. In 1988, “[a]s the Iran-Iraq war draws to a close, Iraqi forces launch the ‘Anfal Campaign’ against the Kurds. Tens of thousands of Kurdish civilians and fighters are killed, and hundreds of thousands forced into exile, in a systematic attempt to break the Kurdish resistance movement… [In March of 1988, t]housands of Kurdish civilians die in a poison gas attack on the town of Halabjah near the Iranian border. Human rights watchdogs and Kurdish groups hold the Iraqi regime responsible… After the expulsion of Iraqi troops from Kuwait in March 1991 [the infamous Gulf War which involved US forces], members of the pro-government Kurdish militia, the Jash, defect to the KDP [Kurdish Democratic Party] and PUK [Patriotic Union of Kuristan], but the uprising grinds to a halt and US-led forces refuse to intervene to support the rebels. Around 1.5 millions Kurds flee before the Iraqi onslaught, but Turkey closes the border forcing hundreds of thousands to seek refuge in the mountains.” BBC.

After allied forces left, Saddam continued his persecution punished the Kurds for helping the allies, and confiscated then transferred one of their major oil fields (Kirkuk), ceding it to other Iraqi nationals. Still, after this first Gulf War, Kurds began creating a semi-autonomous region that pretty much looked after its own. “Twenty years ago, the Kurdish region in Northern Iraq achieved effective autonomy after the first Gulf War, establishing a liberal constitution and a democratic assembly.” BBC, January 10^th. When the U.S. drove Saddam out of Iraq in 2003 and decimated his Republican Guards, the industrious Kurds (again with money from active oil fields) began rebuilding their region, and their freedom fighters (the Peshmerga), who had fought alongside the victorious Americans, took effective control of the effort. But times have changed.

Today the real government in Northern Iraq is not the civilian authorities, but the Peshmerga (literally meaning those who face death, an homage to Kurdish freedom fighters over the years), armed Kurdish fighters. These militias call all the shots, and if you aren’t on their good list, you pretty much don’t participate in the booming economy of this region. “Unlike the other militias, the Peshmerga were not prohibited by the transitional government; the Kurdish army has been formed out of the Peshmerga. They are usually armed with AKMs, RPKs (light Soviet machine guns) and DShKs (heavy Soviet machine guns). During the American-led invasion the Peshmerga captured the rest of the arms of the Iraqi forces, consisting of more than 2,000 armored vehicles (some hundred of them PT-76s and a smaller number of T-55s) and an unknown number of artillery pieces.” Wikipedia.

Today, as many young Kurds resent the cronyism of the Peshmerga, there is a jealous eye cast at the successful uprisings generated by the Arab Spring. Some feel that the Peshmerga are salting dollars away, investing overseas and creating a lifestyle that is inappropriate and corrupt. “In February, there were protests in the city of Sulaimaniya against corruption and the dominance of the two parties which govern the region [who basically are in the pockets of the Peshmerga]. The demonstration was violently suppressed, resulting in the deaths of several activists. Some Kurds believe that the generation of Peshmerga guerillas who fought for autonomy in the 1980s and 1990s are now blocking more openness and democracy. Yet even critics concede that the Kurds have achieved far greater stability and security than the rest of Iraq.” BBC.

Sunni leader Tariq al-Hashimi knew he’d be safe in Northern Iraq, where even Iranian-backed Shiite militias and the “elected government” forces fear to tread. When Saddam was removed, people feared that this unnatural nation, borders structured by a Franco-British treaty at the end of WWI, would fracture into its natural three regions: Kurds in the north, Sunnis in the southwest and the majority Shiites in the oil-rich southeast on the coast. Both Presidents Bush and Obama claimed a new and stable “elected government” would keep these factions together in one nation, a notion that seemed to splinter days after the American departure.

But clearly, at no time was the Kurdish north ever really a bona fide part of the new elected government, and now with the al-Maliki regime cozying up to Iran and coming down hard on the Sunni minority (who seem to prefer bombs in retaliation), the southern reaches of Iraq appear to be fracturing along those feared Shiite and Sunni lines. In short, not only didn’t we find weapons of mass destruction when we deposed Saddam, the “democratically elected regime” we imposed on Iraq simply has failed, and we have moved the incumbent government right into the Iranian camp. At least Saddam fought Iran and was a constant menace to that theocracy. And to think, Ahmadinejad didn’t even send us a thank you note. But Kurdish militiamen smile through their wallets. They just don’t care.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I shudder at the hubris of American policymakers willing to shed American lives and spend trillions of dollars to impose a solution that really was doomed day one.