‘Is Kurdistan a Real Place?’

LONDON  – Proposed US arms supplies to the Baghdad government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki have prompted concern that these weapons could be used against Iraq’s minorities, including Kurds, according to two retired US generals who served in the country.

Generals Ron Griffith and Jay Garner wrote this week that mounting sectarian tensions between the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government and Sunnis had led to unease in the Kurdistan Region.

“The Kurds remember all too vividly the former Iraqi regime’s brutal al-Anfal genocide twenty-five years ago, which targeted and killed 180,000 Kurds,” they wrote in the Washington political journal The Hill. “As violence escalates and Iraq’s security deteriorates, the Kurds realistically worry that US weapons will also be used against them.”

Gen. Griffith was a commander in the Desert Storm campaign that drove Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait in 1991. Gen. Garner led reconstruction efforts after the 2003 Iraq war but was moved aside after unsuccessfully pressing his government to support early elections that would put Iraqis in charge of their future.

Their warning coincided with a report that Baghdad has signed deals to buy weapons and ammunition worth $195 million from Iran, ostensibly to combat terrorism by al-Qaeda linked groups that took control of parts of Ramadi and Fallujah.

The US said it was seeking clarification about the unconfirmed deal with Iran and that, if confirmed, it would raise serious concerns.

Washington has nevertheless moved ahead with its own program of increasing weapons supplies to Baghdad, fearing the upsurge of violence could further destabilize Mr. Maliki’s rule.

Among the weapons the Obama administration plans to supply to help Mr. Maliki crush the insurgency are 24 Apache attack helicopters and 500 Hellfire missiles.

Members of the US Congress initially opposed the Apache sale, arguing that the counter-insurgency weapons Mr. Maliki wants could be used against Sunnis legitimately protesting against their political marginalization.

Citing concerns about Mr. Maliki’s increasingly sectarian and authoritarian style of government, the US politicians said it should be made clear to Mr. Maliki that new US weapons could only be used for counter-terrorism operations. The sales must also be linked to the prime minister including Sunni leaders in his government, engaging Sunni groups in Anbar province and addressing their grievances.

Senator John McCain, Barack Obama’s defeated rival in the 2008 presidential election, said on Tuesday that the reported Iran-Iraq arms deal should prompt a rethink on the US’s proposed Apache sale.

The territory of the Kurdistan Regional Government has been spared the turmoil that has engulfed other regions of Iraq. But General Griffith and General Garner said the KRG was being short-changed by Baghdad when it came to assisting its own measures to combat al-Qaeda infiltration.

They cited Mr. Maliki’s threat to cancel the KRG budget as indicative of the lengths he might go to impose his political will.

“The Kurdistan region also faces an al-Qaeda threat on its western border with Syria - the same threat facing the rest of Iraq,” they wrote.  “But, as the U.S. provides Baghdad with weapons to combat al-Qaeda, the Iraqi government refuses arms for the Kurdish Peshmarga to protect against the very same threat.”

That amounted to Mr. Mailiki putting political considerations above national security requirements. “U.S. policy in this violence-plagued region should be that of an honest broker rather than an arms broker to an unstable government,” the retired generals concluded.

Critics of the Obama administration’s policy towards the Maliki government include not only retired military men but also politicians concerned about Baghdad’s close ties with Iran.

Others point to US paranoia about the possible break-up of states such as Iraq and Syria and the uncertainty of the chaos that might ensue.

In the case of Kurdistan, that is compounded by a general lack of awareness among Americans about the important role of the Kurds in both those countries.

That widespread ignorance was satirized in a recent Washington Times column by Tara Sonenshine, a former State Department under-secretary for public affairs.

Ms. Sonenshine wrote that Americans needed a geography lesson at a time when established states were replaced by “a series of pseudo-states, groups and strange bedfellows.”

“Iraq is challenging its own geography,” she wrote. “US troops fought to liberate citizens from the yoke of tyranny and gave Iraqis back their country. Now extremists have taken parts of that territory and are flying their own flag. That is confusing.  (And what’s with the Kurds — is Kurdistan a real place?)”