US President Barack Obama’s speech on Friday dashed Iraq’s expectations and made the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) overjoyed. His words must have also reminded the Iraqi leaders that the best way to save their country from a disastrous end is first and foremost an agreement with the Kurds.
With two points, Obama made everything clear to the Iraqis: First, that his country wouldn’t send troops to Iraq again and that what is happening there is a domestic issue and it is upon the Iraqis themselves to find a solution.
Those two very points contradicted America’s own definition of terrorism, while his decision to withdraw his troops from Iraq three years ago was detrimental to this country.
America has always treated terrorism as a global threat, but by referring to Iraq’s problems as domestic, Obama covered up all the regional hands that are stirring up turmoil in Iraq.
Obama took the same policy towards Iraq that he has adopted towards Syria and put the war on terrorism on the backburner. This means that if the Iraqi leaders do not find a way out of their crisis, Obama’s present to Iraq would be the same disaster of Syria.
The US gave arms to Nouri al-Maliki. It trained and funded his sectarian army. It was silent when Baghdad cut off the funding of the Peshmerga. It didn’t stop Maliki’s hostility towards the Kurds. It didn’t stop him from violating the constitution that was written with the American help. It didn’t stop him from brutalizing the Sunni population and their demands for autonomy. The US didn’t say a word about Baghdad freezing Kurdistan Region’s budget and worst of all, Washington opposed Kurdistan’s oil exports.
It was for these reasons that some analysts said Obama lacked a world vision. What was strange was Obama’s own confession, that despite all the support, the Iraqi army wasn’t able to defend the cities. This in itself contradicted the American belief that says an army is strengthened by the people not just money and arms.
As I mentioned in my previous column, Iraq’s failures and that of its army are due to Maliki’s own political failures and the deepening of the problems with the Kurds and Sunnis.
And now that America’s position is clear, the Kurds for their part are in a strong position. On the one hand they are in control of all the Kurdish territories and Maliki’s policy of starving the Kurdistan Region by cutting of their budget has failed. On the other, they also have the strongest and most determined army in Iraq.
Therefore Obama’s speech must be clear to the Iraqi leaders that the only way to avoid Syria’s fate is a genuine political agreement that can be felt on the ground. Meanwhile, all eyes are now on the Kurdish leaders to see what their first move is going to be.
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