Truthdig: Trouble Brewing in Paradise (Kurdish region of Iraq)

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Reese Erlich: Trouble Brewing in Paradise


By Reese Erlich

SULAYMANIYEH, KURDISH REGION, IRAQ—The mission was simple. The American military trainers were to accompany Kurdish Iraqi troops downtown to buy supplies. But the U.S. troops still had to wear full battle gear and travel in a three-humvee convoy.

Anywhere else in Iraq they would expect roadside bombs or deadly sniper fire. Here in the Kurdish region, they worry more about bumping into civilian cars on the narrow, traffic-clogged streets.

"You’re treated like a rock star” here in the Kurdish region, said Maj. Michael Perricane, a National Guard officer from Huntington Beach in Southern California. “You feel safe.”

The United States has 100 to 150 military trainers in this part of northern Iraq, according to Lt. Col. Dennis Chapman, who is in charge of evaluating the training. In an interview inside the U.S. base on the outskirts of Sulaymaniyeh, Chapman said the Kurds welcome the U.S. for freeing them from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein.

“There’s a profound reservoir of goodwill towards the U.S.,” said Chapman. “The Kurds have made the most of U.S. support.”

Chapman, Perricane and others are helping to transform the Kurdish political party militias, known as peshmurgas, into units of the Iraqi army. So far 3,000 peshmurgas from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the same number from the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) have gone through training to become regular Iraqi army.

But critics say the new Iraqi army units are more loyal to their party than to the Iraqi government. The U.S. is, they argue, helping professionalize party militias that are not likely to fight in other parts of Iraq and could end up at war with one another. ....... (More)

The rest of the article is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20061226_reese_erlich_trouble_brewing_in_paradise/