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The Kurdish secret
3.9.2007
By Thomas L. Friedman
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September 3, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region (Iraq), --
Iraq today is a land of contrasts - mostly black and
blacker. Travelling around the central Baghdad area
the past few days, I saw little that really gave me
hope that the different Iraqi sects can forge a
social contract to live together. The only sliver of
optimism I find here is in the one region where
Iraqis don't live together: Kurdistan.
Imagine for a moment if one outcome of the US
invasion of Iraq had been the creation of an
American University of Iraq.
Imagine if we had triggered a flood of new
investment into Iraq that had gone into new hotels,
a big new convention center, office buildings,
Internet cafes, two new international airports and
Iraqi malls. Imagine if we had paved the way for an
explosion of newspapers, even a local Human Rights
Watch chapter, and new schools. Imagine if we had
created an island of decency in Iraq, with public
parks, where women could walk unveiled and not a
single American soldier was ever killed - where
Americans in fact were popular - and where Islam was
practiced in its most tolerant and open manner.
Imagine ...
Well, stop imagining. It's all happening in
Kurdistan, the northern Iraqi region, home to four
million Kurds. I saw all of the above in Kurdistan's
two biggest towns, Erbil and Sulaimaniyah. The Bush
team just never told anybody.
No, Kurdistan is not a democracy. It has real
Parliamentary elections, but the region's executive
branch is still more "Sopranos" than "West Wing,"
more Singapore than Switzerland - dominated by two
rival clans, the Talabanis and the Barzanis. It has
a vibrant free press, as long as you don't insult
the leadership, and way too much crony-corruption.
But it is democratizing, gradually nurturing the
civil society and middle class needed for a real
democracy.
On Oct. 17, the new American University of Iraq will
open classes in Sulaimaniyah. "The board wanted
three campuses, one in Kurdistan, one in Baghdad and
one in Basra, but this is the only part of the
country where an American University can open and
function safely," said Owen Cargol, the school's
chancellor.
Iraq is a disaster in so many ways, but at least
America's invasion midwifed something really
impressive in Kurdistan. And in the best way: we
created the opening and the Kurds did the rest. But
while the Kurds liberated their region from Saddam's
army in the 1990s - with U.S. air cover - their
current renaissance was only possible, they say,
thanks to the overthrow of Saddam, their mortal
enemy.
"Saddam's eyes were always on this region," said
Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdistan
regional government.
Once he was toppled, "it gave us psychological hope
for the future. Those who had even a limited amount
of money started to invest, start small businesses
or buy a car, because they thought they could see
the future. The uncertainty was removed.
... We have to thank the American people and
government. But we are a lover from only one side.
We love America, but nothing in response. They don't
want to give the perception that they are helping
us."
Added Hoshyar Omar, a 23-year-old
student-translator: "My father was buried alive [by
Saddam's men] when I was 3. I want to thank Mr.
George Bush personally. ... He may have made some
bad decisions, but freeing Iraq was the best
decision he has ever made. ... We had nothing and we
built this Kurdistan that you see." Why is Kurdistan
America's best-kept secret success? Because the Bush
team is afraid the Kurds will break away. But the
Kurds have no interest in splitting from Iraq now.
Iraq's borders protect them from Turkey, Iran and
Syria.
The Kurdish autonomous zone should be our model for
Iraq. Does George Bush or Condi Rice have a better
idea? Do they have any idea? Right now, we're
surging aimlessly. Iraq's only hope is radical
federalism - with Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds each
running their own affairs, and Baghdad serving as an
A.T.M., dispensing cash for all three. Let's get
that on the table - now.
Months after Saddam's capture, a story made the
rounds that he was asked, "If you were set free,
could you stabilize Iraq again?" He supposedly said
it would take him only "one hour and 10 minutes -
one hour to go home and shower and 10 minutes to
reunify Iraq." Maybe an iron-fisted dictator could
do that. America can't.
"No one here accepts to be ruled ever again by the
other," Kosrat Ali, Kurdistan's vice president, told
me. "If you get all the American forces to occupy
all of the towns and the cities of Iraq, you might
be able to centralize Iraq again. That is the only
way." Otherwise, "centralized rule is finished in
Iraq."
nytimes com
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