Kurdish Region in Northern Iraq Will Get to Keep Special Status

[zimv20]

link (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/05/international/middleeast/05KURD.html?hp)


The Bush administration has decided to let the Kurdish region remain semi-autonomous as part of a newly sovereign Iraq despite warnings from Iraq's neighbors and many Iraqis not to divide the country into ethnic states, American and Iraqi officials say.


i wonder what the kurds did to convince the bush administration to take this position, especially considering:

The Bush administration has many times stated its opposition to a permanent arrangement of ethnic states in Iraq, fearing that the country might eventually become another Lebanon, where power is parceled out according to religion.

[Desertrat]

The whole Kurd deal is a can of worms for Turkey, Iraq and Iran. The Kurds want a "Kurdistan" of the land areas where they are (historically) the great majority of the population. Turkey and Iran have a "No way in Hell!" attitude. In the past, same for Iraq.

From what I've read about the "restructuring" of Iraq, the Kurds (highly suspicious folks, naturally) have been rather non-cooperative insofar as any trust of the proposals to date.

A further problem is the internal divisions within the Kurdish people.

IMO, it doesn't matter what is proposed for Iraq, as to any form of government of any sort whatsoever. The Kurds will continue to be a source of divisiveness. In their collective opinion, they've been crapped on by everybody, forever. They see no reason to trust any government but whatever they, themselves, can develop--and, maybe, not even then.

'Rat

[Ugg]

Originally posted by zimv20
i wonder what the kurds did to convince the bush administration to take this position, especially considering:

I think it ties into the SH capture. Also, gw needs to get re-elected this year and ANY sign of peace in Iraq is good propaganda. Of course, it is a stupid idea without support from Iran and Turkey, two countries that have shown no interest whatsoever in a separate Kurdish state. Without that cooperation, gw has lit the flame to a Kurdish conflagration.