'Kurds turn against US after losing control over oil-rich land'

[Aidoneus]

if I wrote up the title, it should rather be "turning", but that's the original..

Kurds turn against US after losing control over oil-rich land
Kurdish community claims it had more autonomy under Saddam
By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad
21 January 2004

Iraqi Kurds, the one Iraqi community that has broadly supported the American occupation, are expressing growing anger at the failure of the United States and its allies to give them full control of their own affairs and allow the Kurds to expel Arabs placed in Kurdistan by Saddam Hussein.

Massoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, told The Independent in an interview that the Kurds had been offered less autonomy "than we had agreed in 1974 with the regime of Saddam Hussein".

The Kurds, the main Iraqi victors of the war last year, want, in effect, to keep the mini-state in northern Iraq they ruled after Saddam withdrew his army in 1991. They also want the US and the Iraqi Governing Council to recognise the Kurdish identity of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk and other districts from which Kurds were forced to flee by the deposed dictator and his predecessors.

Mr Barzani, a neatly dressed, rather intense man who fought for decades against the old regime, was in Baghdad to seek to persuade the US- appointed governing council, of which he is a member, to recognise the federal autonomy of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Sitting in a gloomy house in Saddam's old palace complex, Mr Barzani said it was important for the Kurdish right to home rule to be enshrined in the Iraqi Basic Law that is now being drawn up.

But he is caustic about the governing council. "Their main priority seems to be travelling abroad," he said, and added that many members of the council were formerly part of the Iraqi opposition who had committed themselves again and again over the years to a federal solution for the Iraqi Kurds and should not now abandon their old promises.

--snip--

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=483202

[DarkSim]

1. 'bout time they do.

:evilgrin:

I hope the Kurds keep it up too... The whole war was such bs.

[aquart]

2. Bush will let the Turks wipe them out.

That will mean only two contending parties in Iraq.

Of course, Turkey will take the oil.

[IndianaGreen]

3. Fools! Don't they realize that Bush is protecting from Turkey?

I may criticize Bush for a lot of things, but on this issue he is right. Turkey will not sit quietly by and allow the Kurds to set up either an independent state or a federated state in Northern Iraq. There is already a lot of anger in Turkey at the way the Kurds have treated the Turkmen.

The last thing the Kurds need is for Turkey to send its tanks into Northern Iraq.

[ozymandius]

14. And the U.S. will not give up the oil. So a troop presence will remain.

This makes for a thorny situation in the potential of two NATO countries firing on each other should Kurdistan emerge with a seperate identity, thus enraging the Turks.

Something I never have understood is why Turkey has been so opposed to Kurdish statehood under any conditions. What has Turkey to gain from the present situation and lose under the different one?

Also, I wonder, what kind of relationship do the Kurds have with Syria?

[Go Eagles]

16. Turkey opposes statehood because

"What has Turkey to gain from the present situation and lose under the different one?"

an empowered and independent Kurdish region in Northern Iraq with oil wealth is a threat to Turkey because they have their own Kurdish separatists at an adjacent border that they have been brutally suppressing. Combined with the Shia protests and demand for greater autonomy, we are witnessing what many warned would happen with all the ethnic and tribal divisions in the country once Hussein was removed.

[jpgray]

19. Kurds are screwed no matter what happens

In a Shiite-led Iraq, they are shut out and spit upon as usual. Or, given a powerful natural resource, they try to become independent and Turkey stomps on them.

[JCMach1]

4. The Kurds WILL NOT give up autonomy though

Federation or not in Iraq...

Most of this is posturing though on how the new government will be setup... Same thing for the Shiites right now.

[mikehiggins]

5. This is like a crash between a gasoline truck and a schoolbus full

of fourth graders. Everyone can see it coming but the forces in motion are just too strong to deflect.

We're going to need a lot of bodybags before Washington wakes up and pulls our soldiers out. This is going to be a lot worse than Beirut and our men and women are right out there in the open.

[IndianaGreen]

8. No shit!

This is indeed a wreck in the making that everyone can see coming.

[La_Serpiente]

6. Oh great,

we have protesters in the streets demanding free elections and now THIS!!!

[demconfive]

7. Be careful what you wish for.

The Bush Misadministration keeps saying it wants democracy to "break out" in the Mid East. Now they're shitting bricks 'cause it is.



Sorry mods! That should say "defecating clay-based building materials"

[pinniped]

9. Why are they complaining?

Iraq is liberated, FREE! Now they have the nerve to demand control over BULLshyt's oil-rich lands?:crazy:

[countmyvote4real]

10. but the * administration said we'd get flowers

I guess that was before it resulted in Iraqi women losing their rights, but the Kurds should have known they'ed be screwed. It's cold comfort, but the Kurds should know that the American people have been screwed by this administration, too.

[spindoctor]

11. Who would have foreseen that?

Suckers!

[Momof1]

12. *'s secret plan. Piss more people off, make more terrorists

So the history books can say, that terrorism was low during his tenure.:crazy:

[leftchick]

13. any Murican Papers carry this?

I didn't think so. Iraq is about to explode and we have lacy, MJ, Kobey and the weather.... :puke:

[dusty64]

15. I saw nothing in

my morning rag.

[Terwilliger]

17. kick

[jpgray]

18. You know, Bush has ruined MILLIONS of lives with his presidency

I can't believe he would fuck over the Kurds like this. They've been fucked over by Saddam since time out of mind, and now this. What a heartless and vicious BASTARD that man is.

[DinahMoeHum]

20. and remember, the Kurds are the ones who captured Saddam.

then stuck him in a hole and told US troops where to find him.

They should know, more than anybody else (except the Shiites),that * is an Indian-giver.

:evilfrown: