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Kurdish General wants permanent U.S. base
in Kurdistan Region
1.11.2006
By Elaine M. Grossman |
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November 1, 2006
The commander of a major faction of Kurdish troops
in Iraq says he would welcome the establishment of a
permanent American military facility in Kurdistan
Region (northern Iraq), where Kurds are the dominant
ethnic group.
"We highly support building a U.S. military base in
Kurdistan," says General Mustafa Said Qadir, deputy
commander of "Peshmerga" militia forces (National
Kurdistan Army) in Kurdistan Region (northern Iraq)
and a senior member of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK) political party. "We [Kurds] all
agree on that and we think it's very important."
His comments, offered early this month via e-mail in
response to questions from Inside the Pentagon, came
after Congress moved in late September to ban any
such permanent U.S. facilities in the Persian Gulf
nation. The fiscal year 2007 Defense Appropriations
Act, which President Bush signed into law Sept. 29,
includes a provision that prohibits spending "to
establish any military installation or base for the
purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of
United States armed forces in Iraq."
Critics have called on the administration to address
Iraqi insurgent and population concerns about a
long-term occupation by clearly disavowing any
interest in permanent basing.
But at a press conference Oct. 25, Bush would not
rule out the possibility.
"Any decisions about permanency in Iraq will be made
by the Iraqi government," the president told
reporters. "Remember, when you're talking about
bases and troops, we're dealing with a sovereign
government. Now, we entered into an agreement with
the Karzai government [in Afghanistan]. They weren't
called permanent bases, but they were called
arrangements that will help this government
understand that there will be a U.S. presence so
long as they want them there.
"And at the appropriate time," Bush continued, "I'm
confident we'll be willing to sit down and discuss,
you know, the long-term security of Iraq."
Despite White House protests, there are growing
bipartisan calls in Washington to scale back the
U.S. troop presence in Iraq. Some opinion leaders
support the establishment of a geographic partition
along ethnic and religious lines, among them: Sen.
Joseph Biden (D-Del.), ranking minority member of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Leslie Gelb,
president emeritus of the Council on Foreign
Relations; and Peter Galbraith, a former State
Department official.
Sectarian violence in Iraq has risen sharply despite
a change in strategy this summer that bolstered U.S.
forces in the Baghdad area. The United States has
141,000 troops in Iraq.
In the past, Bush administration leaders have said
there are no plans to establish permanent bases in
Iraq. But in public statements they have never
clearly ruled out the possibility.
Asked about the prospect by a Marine at a "town hall
meeting" in Fallujah last December, Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, "We have no idea,
but at the moment there are no plans for permanent
bases here in this country."
In March, Zalmay Khalilzad, the Bush
administration's ambassador to Baghdad, was quoted
as saying on Iraqi television that the United States
had "no goal of establishing permanent bases in
Iraq."
Though the United States has turned over dozens of
bases to the new Iraqi military, it has also
continued to pour hundreds of millions of dollars
into construction at a handful of installations
occupied by U.S. forces, including Balad air base
and logistics center north of Baghdad, al-Asad air
base in the western desert, and Tallil air base in
the southeast.
The Congressional Research Service reported last
year the spending appears to suggest plans for a
long-term U.S. presence. But a Pentagon spokesman
said last spring the bases are being built for the
Iraqis.
In his response to questions, Qadir also said the
PUK is working with the Kurdistan Democratic Party,
with whom his group has forged a sometimes uneasy
alliance, to integrate their separate militias. The
PUK dominates eastern Kurdistan while the larger KDP
is centered in the west.
"We have a plan and [have] moved towards reuniting
the peshmerga forces of Kurdistan, and establishing
a force for protecting the Kurdistan region
according to the Iraqi constitution," Qadir said.
"Along with the recent, ongoing merger of the PUK
and KDP ministries in general, this is yet another
sign of a stabilizing and maturing region capable of
standing on its own two legs," says one U.S. Army
officer in the region, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
But the idea has raised concerns in Turkey and Iran,
where some believe peshmerga integration is a
significant step toward a fully independent Kurdish
state, according to experts.
The Turkish military has long battled the Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK), a Kurdish militant group, along
the border with Iraq. And Turkey's leaders have
expressed serious concern about a Kurdish
nationalist movement that could destabilize its
eastern region. In August, artillery shells fired
from Iran hit remote Kurdish villages, killing at
least two civilians and injuring more.
The Kurdish general brushed aside worries that an
integrated militia could prove destabilizing to the
region.
"Providing the Kurdish rights is the best guarantee
for [stability], because Kurds have been persecuted
for a long time and we never tyrannized anyone,"
Qadir said. "We are peaceful and seeking . . .
democracy and only our rights."
Merging the two militias is "part of the integration
of the two [Kurdish party] governments," says Henri
Barkey, a State Department policy-planning official
during the Clinton administration. But the desire
for a permanent U.S. base in Kurdistan constitutes
"hedging" against future violence, he says.
"Anyone looking at the situation in Iraq would say
you need to prepare for that eventuality," Barkey
told ITP in an Oct. 24 interview. "Having an
American base is the best insurance policy they can
get against the neighbors doing something against
them, or the Shias or Sunnis going against them."
Now chairman of the international relations
department at Lehigh University, Barkey called the
latter possibility "unlikely." But he added, "If
you're a Kurd, you have to worry about it."
The thriving Kurdish community in northern Iraq has
been a boon to Turkey, even as its military
maintains a presence on both sides of the Iraqi
border to counter PKK activity, according to
regional experts.
"Turkey certainly is reaping the huge economic
benefits from the most stable and prosperous -- by
far -- region in Iraq," says the Army officer in the
region. "It would all be put at risk by [any]
significant military action by Turkey against the
Kurdish villages. . . . Reasonable minds on both
sides of the border see this, but not everybody is
reasonable."
The Turkish military "cares little about the
economic ties," he said.
"The Kurds have every right to be independent," says
Najmaldin Karim, president of the Washington Kurdish
Institute. "After all, the Kurds are the largest
group in the world not to have an independent state.
It is the hope of every Kurd to have that."
A Kurdish state may be in the cards only if Iraq
fractures, he told ITP in a late-August interview.
"Circumstances do not currently permit" an
independent Kurdish nation, Karim said. "But if the
circumstances permit, sure, I think it will happen,"
he said.
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