By Ted Belman
As some of you may know I am on the Board of Directors of the American Kurdish Friendship League. As a result I pay close attention to Kurdish affairs. Both the Kurds and the Israelis are sometimes befriended by the US and sometimes betrayed by her like now. As a result of the Iraq Study Group Report, they are both being sold out.
Ardalan Hardi, Kurdish Aspect, claims that Undermining Kurdish Alliance Would be a Mistake
Pursuant to the ISG Report, The US wants to secure a strong Iraq to prevent it from breaking up. To this end the US wants the Kurds to be more flexible on securing their oil rights pursuant to the vaunted constitution and has already got them to postpone the referendum on Kirkup which in all probability would have ceded it to Kurdistan.
The US softened the Kurds up by giving air rights to Turkey to bomb the PKK in Iraq. She also strengthened US/Turkish ties by so doing.
The US, last February, pursuant to the Report, agreed to join high-level talks with Iran and Syria on the future of Iraq.
Hardi warns,
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In a region where America finds itself with very few friends, the Bush administration is making a colossal mistake in alienating the Kurds who have been one of the strongest supporters of US government in the Middle East.
If the US continues to pressure the Kurdish people in the interest of keeping everyone else in the region happy, it will result in the further deterioration of a relationship that started out with high hopes. The end result will force the Kurds to align themselves with Iran. The Kurds are not interested in being Iran’s ally, nor is it in the benefit of US foreign policy.
The Sunni’s vehemently oppose America, the Shiites are very closely tied to Iran’s Islamic Republic and if we lose the Kurds as allies will loose what little influence we have in Iraq.
As with Israel, the US would rather be friends with their enemies than friends with their friends.
