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By Shwan Zulal:
Whilst Michael Rubin, a scholar from the American Enterprise Institute, argues in Kurdistan Tribune that Kurdistan Region (KR) President Massud Barzani and PM Barham Salih should pressure US policy makers to block the latest proposed Turkish arms sale, the attention of Kurdish politicians should also focus on their failure to convince the US to sell them military hardware too.
The KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government) sees itself as a democratic government, developing its institution rapidly, but not quick enough for the Kurdish public. The region has an elected parliament, albeit dysfunctional, and a coalition government that has faced many challenges, regional and domestic. Progress has been painstakingly slow and as the PM, Salih, has admitted on many occasions, the remnant of the two administrations -PUK and KDP – controlling different parts of the region until late 1990s – is still hindering progress.
One of the crucial issues is security in a region where instability and conflict is never too far away. The KR has locked horns with Baghdad over the financing of Peshmerga forces and their status in Iraq and, so far, the issue is still not wholly resolved.
Iraq is to acquire fighter jets and other military equipment from the US and France reportedly. The KR, however, has the largest organised army in Iraq but it is ill-equipped and not in line to be sold any modern military hardware soon by the US or other European countries. Despite the creation of numerous Peshmerga units under KRG control, technically speaking the Kurdish forces can still be called a militia: simply because the forces are loyal to political parties rather than Kurdish government.
One of the crucial failures of the current and previous Kurdish governments, which politicians from all sides need to take responsibility for, is failing to unite the Peshmerga forces. This has been one of the main stumbling block ahead of the KRG in order to have the means to defend its borders, and have credible military capability to at least work a deterrent in the regional squabble.
Due to a lack of engagement with KR, the US has come under a tremendous amount of criticism from Kurdish commentators and politicians alike. Although the KRG has sought military aid from the US and been given it in the past, the assistance has never been adequate.
It is simplistic to accuse the US of a lack of engagement because it is crucial to bear in mind that, as a policy maker in Washington, if you want to even think about selling arms to Kurdistan Region, who you are going to sell it to – PUK or KDP. Furthermore, what guarantees are there these weapons are not misused.
The US will not sell arms to the KRG without considering the regional implication and possibly the consent of NATO bearing in mind the Iraqi central government. The Kurds have not put themselves in any position to even be considered, by having a fragmented chain of command and a divided military force.
Although it is understandable there are genuine fears and lack of trust among the Kurdish political parties given the history between them, they need to overcome their fears and come up with a workable solution to unite the administrations.
It is easy to dismiss failure of reunification down to a narrow point of self-interest, because there could be other repercussions like frequent military coups and an over-zealous military dictating policy. Nevertheless, the current ruling parties have had nearly 10 years to work on reuniting the forces and still a long way to go.
The latest event in Iraq is a wake-up call for the KR political parties. Differences need to be set aside at this critical juncture and establishing a region based on unity and rule of law is an obligation. The right mechanism with checks and balances need to be enshrined in the constitution, ensuring parliament stays the most powerful institution in the region. Until serious steps are taken to address the pivotal issue of uniting the Peshmerga forces, the KR cannot expect the US to sell it any substantial military hardware.
This article first appeared on Kurdish Views
The biggest mistake in south Kurdistan was the fighting between the factions. Hope we don’t see it happening again.
The dark period in Kurdish history has damaged the KRG s future. Sadly the division continues and there is no end in sight until a new generation of politicians disposes of the old ideology.
Kurdish intellectuals are supposed to be the avantgarde thinkers to help the public comprehend their current situation and show the path to improve their lives and secure their future.
It seems to me that there is an obsession among the critics of the current ruling parties in Kurdistan to put every and any blame on them.
Doing so is dangerous because this leads to being one-eyed and one-dimensional while the reality is three dimensional if not more.
I am puzzled how a kurdish intellectual is able to put the whole blame of the lack of US weapons delivery to Kurds on the KRG?
Not the deficencies of the KRG is the reason for the missing US military support. It is the general and strategic US policy not considering the Kurds and never let the Kurds reach any meaningful levels of power and influence in the middle east.
The only role they are prepared to give to the Kurds is being always ready to be trouble makers and tools in their, and other’s hands, enough to annoy those countries like Iraq, Iran and Turkey which would force them to accept concessions.
Souhtern Kurds were used by the Shah of Iran and the Ayatollahs to pressure Iraq.
The same has been done by Saddam with eastern Kurds.
The same applies to PKK and their syrian support against Turkey.
As every one can double check neither the Americans nor the British have made any meaningful investments or showed any real involvement in Kurdistan since 2003 although they allegedly were very keen to build a new and democratic Iraq after 2003 and there was no better place for that in Iraq than Kurdistan.
They have talked a lot but did very little.
They avoided anything which would lead to “Kurds gaining more weight and leverage”, be it politically, economically, diplomatically or militarily, bot on the iraqi and the middle eastern level.
All what they have done has been “using their alleged friendship” to push Kurds to accept compromises and accept being disfranchised.
Just to mention one of those cases think about the last attempt by Obama and forcing Barzani to accept the iraqi election law for 2010 which meant losing 100.000s kurdish votes and shrinking Kurds and their power further in the iraqi parlament.
You can blame Barzani, KRG and ordinary kurds why they accepted such bullying from Obama
but this and dozens of other cases show that the US has never been a supporter of the kurdish cause.
They have pretended and Kurds were happy to deceive themselves and believe that they were US allies but they never were in reality.
The US has been a big supporter of Cosovo up to creating a new state for them.
If the quality and the performance of that entity and their administration was an issue they would never have dealt with Cosovo because the main Cosovan party, the UCK and many of their leaders, are known to be involved in terrorist activities, drug trafficking, arms smuggle and more until this moment.
Despite that the US didn’t even shy away from a confrontation with Serbia and Russia but they went ahead with their plans with Cosovo, together with the EU against UN/international law.
This should make it clear that not the inaccuracy of the KRG is the reason. It is simply not in their interest to let Kurds “grow” and have even used their alleged friendship in keeping Kurds down instead of promoting them.
The trouble is most Kurds, including the politically active and most intellectuals thought and think that Kurds are US allies.
Kurds are almost irrelevant for the US. The only role the US wanted the Kurds to play, was played by the Kurds happily and voluntarily which was “rebuilding arab Iraq while they were just killing each other” and be a pressure tool against any of those countries they have a quarrel with.
That all above shouldn’t mean that it was right not unite kurdish forces, Peshmargas etc.
It is a crime against the current and the coming generations.
Silaw u rez
Dilshad Xoshnaw
Kak Xoshnaw
I do agree with most of what you have to say, but on this occasion I think you missed the point.
We as Kurds need to start taking responsibility for our misfortunes and stop blaming it on others. It is true that the US or the international community are not interested at our problems as much of other nations, but our task is to make them interested and not merely wait for them.
Recognition and respect is earned and not handed out. unfortunately our political system is based on entitlement rather than merit and hard work. Therefore, we think the world owe us a recognition. If we want the world to take a serious look at us, we need to work together and respect one another and not keep fighting each other.
If Peshmerge forces were a united army, the US may still not be willing to sell us arms but a possibility would have been there, however with the disunited force there is no chance whatsoever.
Rez
Kurdistan
Berez Kurdistan,
I think this is a misunderstanding.
Working together and being united is not only better, it is an absolute necessity.
Please see my comment about another article for more about this matter and my views of it:
http://kurdistantribune.com/2011/representatives-seek-block-arms-sales-turkey/#respond
My point about this article is that it is an extreme reduction of the reality and the facts to declare the un-united peshmarga forces, for whatever reason and by whomever, responsible for the denied US support, although it is worsening the situation of us Kurds which is bad enough.
Slaw u rez
Dilshad