I find myself in the highly unusual situation in that I am on the same side of an issue as Paul Manafart, who is currently in Iraq, lobbying for Kurdish independence. However, there is a difference. Manafart believes what he’s paid to believe. I decided that I supported partitioning Iraq, shortly GW ChickenHawk, attacked that nation in his Republican war for oil and profit. Republicans gave us no oil. Republicans gave us no profit. What Republicans did give us is ISIL.
As jubilant Iraqi Kurds celebrated their vote Monday on independence from Iraq, shooting off fireworks and parading in cars festooned with Kurdish flags late into the night, their neighbors conducted military exercises on the region’s borders, raising the threat of military intervention if it secedes.
The vote played out on a historic day for several million Kurds in northern Iraq, and was a pivotal moment in the Kurdish dream of a politically independent state.
While officials said the vote would not be tabulated until at least Tuesday, it was expected to be overwhelmingly in favor of independence for Iraqi Kurdistan, the semiautonomous region in northern Iraq.
Despite the celebrations, the vote may come at a steep political cost to the Kurds.
It proved highly provocative for Turkey, Iran and Iraq, whose responses are likely to roil the region in the coming days, stirring the very turmoil that the United States hoped to avoid when it pressured the Kurds to call off the vote.
The White House has warned that a Kurdish move toward independence could set off ethnic conflict, and that it could fracture Iraq and undermine the American-led coalition against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. “We hope for a unified Iraq to annihilate ISIS, and certainly a unified Iraq to push back on Iran,” the White House spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said Monday.
The vote has strained Iraqi Kurdistan’s relations with the United States, which relies heavily on Kurdish fighters to assist the American-led coalition against Islamic State militants. The region, which is landlocked, is vulnerable to growing threats of sanctions along its borders…
Inserted from <NY Times>
One reasons I have supported partition is that Iraq is an artificial country, created by Western powers in the aftermath of WWI. It is made made up of three mutually hostile factions. Forced together, there will be no lasting peace between them. Another is that for years the Kurds were oppressed by the Sunni, and barring independence, they face oppression by the Shia. Finally, I believe in the rights of all peoples to self-determination.
I fully believe that, if the US does not oppose them, they will support us against ISIL, as it is in their self-interest to do so.
RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!
13 Responses to “Kurds Vote for Freedom”
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I just hope it goes smoothly. Certainly they need and deserve independence, and clearly have shown that they want it. Ummm – When was the last time independence went smoothly?
That “Little Devil” looks like a sweetie …
Must be a stealth “Resister” and “Persister”
(Looks like Chloe.) Agreed. Something to do with the sekritarmy?
Thanks, Tom for post.
Wow. Semiautonomous. That sounds like it could get ugly. I feel for the Kurdish people. They deserve to live their lives as they deem fit!
Kurdistan encompasses land in four countries whose borders either have been changing over the centuries (Turkey and Iran (Persia)) or which have been created at the beginning of the last century by British cartographers just drawing up some borders in the desert sands (Iraq and Syria). The Kurdish people were divided and displaced by these actions and have paid the price with subjugation and cultural and religious destruction ever since, much like the Palestinians have in Palestine. So it is no wonder Turkey and Syria are becoming very restless now the Kurds in northern Iraq, which already had some autonomy in Iraq since 1970, have voted for independence: the troublesome Kurds in southeastern Turkey, northern Syria and northwestern Iran will certainly want to become independent too and join the greater Kurdistan.
And guess what is the main factor in the unrest of these four countries: OIL. Iraqi Kurdistan alone holds the sixth largest oil reserve in the world.
The White House couldn’t be more hypocritical when it maintains that a Kurdish move towards independence would set off ethnic conflict. The Kurds have known nothing but ethnic conflict since they were divided by the West and the US has carefully nourished the Kurdish underdog position to have the Peshmerga fight the Da’esh. America once again has let the gini out of the bottle when it suited their purposes and now expects it to go back in again. Lynn has previously published an article on how popular Drumpf is with the Kurds in Turkey, which undoubtedly also holds for the Kurds in Iraq and could explain why Manafort is working there now. So sad to know that millions of Kurds are going to feel let down by the Drumpf clan, just like Americans have.
Very well said!
Absolutely well said!
Lona, you’ve said it so well. I can’t add much.
I think the article Lona is referencing is this How One Man Laid the Groundwork for Today’s Crisis in the Middle East
The US have used the Kurds time after time. The Kurds have certainly been oppressed in Iraq and Turkey for decades upon decades, if not longer. Is it any wonder that they want to be able to determine their own future. It seems that the Americans did just that themselves back in 1776.
I do wonder though, who Manafort is working for . . . the US, Russia?
That article slipped by me, because I was in the hospital after losing my leg and was not always lucid. Kudos!
maybe for Manafort?
Thanks all. Hugs!
Manafort may be there, as well, to avoid his coming indictment!