RISKING SECURITY FOR WHAT?

Photo: www.middle-east-online.com

Ha gerilla, gerilla, gerilla,
Cihanin umudu gerilla.
Ha gerilla, gerilla, gerilla,
Halkimin umudu gerilla.
~ Şehîd Sefkan of Koma Berxwedan, Halkimin Umudu.

Harry Rosenfeld, a former editor of the Washington Post and the guy who brought the Watergate scandal to public light, opines in the Albany Times Union that the US should use Kurds as a "stop-gap" to save Baghdad because US forces are "stretched to their limit" and none of the other schemes Washington has cooked up as "stop-gaps," to make up for lousy planning of how to secure and reconstruct Iraq post-war, have worked.

In this crisis, which could in the worst case result in Iraq becoming a failed state, the U.S. should turn to the Kurds, who in their virtually autonomous enclave in northern Iraq have amassed a reputable and disciplined force of 60,000 to 100,000 men known as the Peshmerga.

[ . . . ]

The Peshmerga could have greater credibility with both Shiite and Sunnis than either would have with forces mainly made up of members of the other's religious sect.

In other words, Rosenfeld wants Kurds to risk the security of South Kurdistan in order to save what has become the American misadventure, probably because Americans are sick and tired of dying. He notes that pêşmerge "[took] control of the major northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk," back in March, 2003, but fails to mention that US forces immediately ordered pêşmerge out of those cities, a stupid thing to do, given the serious problems that both cities have had and continue to have under American control. In fact, American control of Mûsil resulted in numerous beheadings of Kurds and Iraqi Christians, as well as a virtual takeover of the western portion of the city by "insurgents."

Not only does Rosenfeld suggest that Kurds should risk their own security, but he admits that by "acquiescing" to any American demand for help in "stabilizing" Iraq, he also admits that the very scheme he proposes will end up going badly for Kurds:

Employment of the Peshmerga, nominally a part of the national Iraqi army, outside of its home grounds would come with a cost. In Iraq itself, it likely would engender fears of the Kurds winding up in any eventual settlement with a greater share of the national pie -- meaning oil -- than their 4 million portion of the national population would warrant. Shiites are the most numerous, Sunnis the second most.

[ . . . ]

U.S. diplomacy would have to reassure the Turks, who are allies, that the wider employment of Kurdish troops, and perhaps additional training of more of them, would be strictly limited to containing the destabilization of Iraq, which also threatens Turkey.

As for the Syrians and Iranians, who are fishing in Iraq's troubled waters, the Kurds' wider deployment would serve as a warning to them to help facilitate compromise rather than continuing to encourage disorder in Iraq.

How will the US "reassure" the Ankara regime over the "wider employment of Kurdish troops," when the Ankara regime is busy convincing the US that all Kurds are "terrorists"? According to TDN, "[i]n talks with U.S. officials, the Turkish military emphasizes that the PKK and Iraqi Kurds are 'one and the same,'" indicating that both the US and Turkey are laying the propaganda groundwork to justify a Turkish invasion for oil as part of their global War on Terror®.

It's a very suspicious thing that Americans suddenly come to the conclusion that Kurdish forces should stretch themselves to their limit by employing pêşmerge "outside of its home grounds," thus jeopardizing Kurdish security at a time when Turkey and Iran have been engaged in joint military operations against Kurdish civilians in South Kurdistan. These joint military operations are ostensibly due to the presence of the Kurdish freedom fighters of the PKK in South Kurdistan's mountains, but given the natural oil wealth of Kerkuk, Mûsil, and recently discovered oil deposits in Behdinan (Dihok governorate and parts of Hewlêr governorate), it is far more likely that the massing of Turkish troops along the border with South Kurdistan, and attacks coordinated with Iran, is the preparation for Turkey's permanent seizure of the oil resources.

It was no coincidence that the deployment of TSK along the border with South Kurdistan occurred in April, during Secretary of State Rice's visit to Ankara. American silence over the deployment, and over subsequent acts of Turkish and Iranian aggression indicates that the US approves of the Ankara regime's plans.

Additionally, that great friend of Kurdistan, Henry Kissinger, is proclaiming that the time is not right for "democracy" in Iraq and, as the ideologist behind the Iraq study group, is emphasizing the need to enlist the help of Iran and Syria to help protect American interests in Iraq. Iranian and Syrian "help" will no doubt include harsher crackdowns and more murders of Kurds. Just as America knowingly and willfuly abandoned Kurds to slaughter in 1975 under Kissinger's watch, so too the US will do the same thing again.

Meanwhile, in the Kurdish mountains, Our People's Hope still holds out for peace while standing ready for war, from Middle East Online:

Deep in the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region, PKK commander Saydo Hussein Afshin said let them try it.

"No power or country can get us out of the Qandil," he said against a stunning backdrop of snow-capped peaks in the nearly inaccessible region along the Iranian border.

"Twenty times the Turks have attacked us and they were never victorious, instead we were the victor."

Around him, dozens of guerrilla fighters armed with assault rifles, rocket propelled grenade launchers and light machine guns, worked on preparing the camp for winter by gathering firewood and insulating their simple stone huts clinging to the mountain side.

[ . . . ]

Afshin said they are dug in deeply in their mountain fastness and cannot be dislodged.

"For the past 10 years we have made many preparations and we feel quite safe here," he said.

Recent restructuring of HPG's operations gives each HPG unit greater autonomy in battle, so much so that in the event of full-scale operations against enemy forces, there will be no centralized command. Each unit is well aware of the mission, understands perfectly what must be done, and has the autonomy to carry out planned operations or spontaneous attacks against targets of opportunity. The terrain of the Kurdistan favors unconventional warfare, of which HPG is the master. At this point, HPG holds all key terrain and enjoys the benefits of operating from well-prepared defensive positions. This means that any future invasion will fail, exactly as they have all failed in the past.

The goal is not to seize terrain and hold it, as in conventional warfare, but to force the enemy side to a political resolution. A political resolution can be the only proper resolution to a political problem. Continued retaliation attacks against Kurdish civilians by Turkey and Iran will increase the ranks of HPG and reinforce the already massive civilian support of PKK.

While PKK remains true to its unilateral ceasefire, the Ankara regime, with American backing, continues to attack gerîlas. As long as the US appoints arms dealers such as Lockheed Martin's Joseph Ralston to encourage Turkey in its aggression, and actively works to cover up the genocide of the Kurdish people, there can be no cooperation.