Iraqi Kurds Call for Referendum (on independence)

[quaoar]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Ethnic Minority Seeking Vote On Independence

By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service

BAGHDAD -- Kurdish leaders have requested that the new Iraqi constitution guarantee the Kurdish minority the right to vote on independence in eight years, a Kurdish member of the constitutional committee said Friday.

The call for a referendum on secession from Iraq is the Kurds' most overt push toward independence since the fall of president Saddam Hussein.

Relatives of 18 children who died during a car bomb attack last week sit with portraits of their children during a luncheon with Iraqi government officials. (Pool Photo By Khalid Mohammed -- Reuters)

Saadi Barzanchani, a Kurdish member of the national committee drafting the constitution, said Kurds would probably vote to remain part of Iraq if the country became the democracy that Iraqi and U.S. leaders have promised. "Eight years will be sufficient time to see," he said in an interview.

[vogonjiltz]

1. ooops, I don't think that bushco had this in mind

[ECH1969]

2. That won't happen

The chance is somewhat less then zero of the Shia and Sunnis going along with that.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. 8 years?

There isn't going to be an Iraq in 8 years.

[Gronk Groks]

4. Kurds have always wanted independence...

...this is their way have feeling out the terrain.

They probably deserve it, but politically it is impossible. Just hope the Bushivics who run this country tell them "no" politely. They are probably the only people in Iraq who actually want us there.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. In the event of civil war

I hope it doesn't happen, but if Iraq degenerates into a civil war between Shia and Sunnis, the Kurds might take advantage of the situation and declare independence. Otherwise, they would have to take sides in a war that isn't really at all their fight.

[BillZBubb]

6. The seeds of civil war are planted.

They will grow into a all encompassing vine of death and destruction.

The Kurds want independence. They have consistently gone along with the US because that got them nearer their goal. Once the US leaves them to their own devices, it's going to get very bloody.

No Sunni or Shiite is dumb enough to fall for this scheme. The Kurds are going to be a major problem in Iraq and Turkey for decades to come.

Another NeoCon screw up.

[expatriot]

7. Yes the Kurds have obviously always wanted independence... but...

they've got to see that a declaration of independence would crush everything they've gained over the past 14+ years (since they have effectively been independent of Saddam). If they declared independence the Turks would sweep down from the north, Iraqi arabs (both Sunni and Shia) would give them no safe quarter to say the least on their southern flank and Syria and Iran would clamp down on their Kurdish population.

Hopefully cooler heads will prevail but "cool heads" and "nationalistic fervor" never seem to go with eachother.

[quaoar]

10. Turkey isn't going to invade Kurdistan

Not as long as American troops are there.

And we ain't leaving for decades.

[expatriot]

11. Turkey has always said that they will go into Iraqi Kurdistan

if they declare independence from the get-go. They are almost ready to go in now because of the uptick of Kurd revolutionary activity in Turkey

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/7/5F0EEA75-3CB2-4D05-B3F2-0FB28DD85B9A.html

[Enquiringkitty]

8. There will be an Iraq in 8 years ... we will still be there to make sure!

Our government sees the problem of civil war without our troops there so no other administration is going to be the one to pull out and let the carnage happen so we can just look at Iraq like we look at Puerto Rico. For all intent and purposes, it is ours. After all, there are still indians in North and South Dakota but it isn't theirs anymore either.

[Emendator]

9. It's only a matter of time

for them to get independence, whether official of de facto. There's really no stopping it as this is a widespread nationalist sentiment. I don't really blame them. It's probably best to just allow Iraq, which has always been an artificial country, to split into three.

[expatriot]

12. They've had de facto indepedence since right after Gulf War I

Both the Kurds and the Shia rose up against Saddam after his military capability was nearly destroyed completely in Kuwait. Saddam managed to crush the Shia uprising but not the Kurds. So Iraqi Kurdistan has been free of Baghdad's rule for well over a decade.

[daleo]

13. Leaving aside the pros and cons of Kurdish independence

Bush will betray them.

[WCGreen]

14. Damn it, I always knew the Kurds would get in the Way