by Scott Creighton
As of late we’ve been hearing a lot about the possibility of creating a new Kurdistan by expanding the “de facto” Iraqi Kurdistan into other people’s nations, namely Syria and Turkey (both being equally demonized in the press )
A recent call put out by the George Soros funded AVAAZ begs “progressive” readers to sign a petition asking President Peace Prize to please carpet bomb a northern corridor in Syria for “humanitarian” reasons.
The “alternative” Tea Party leader also got into the act recently, trying to drum up support for the same kind of action only he made the objective a bit clearer:
“I would draw new lines for Kurdistan and I would promise them a country,” Rand Paul
Looks like he’s punching his ticket to a 2016 Vice Presidency, doesn’t it?
These things are not unrelated. Nor is it a coincidence that Gen Petraeus, Dov Zakheim and the totally corrupt President of Iraqi Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, got together last week to map out a strategy for the creation of a Greater Kurdistan while simultaneously laying the groundwork for yet another new LNG pipeline.
In our recent tradition of really, really, really bad ideas, this one ranks up there with the classics.
The Objective
Syria’s rationale for rejecting the Qatar proposal was said to be “to protect the interests of [its] Russian ally, which is Europe’s top supplier of natural gas.”[1]
In 2012 an analyst cited by Ansa Mediterranean suggested that Qatar‘s involvement in the Syrian civil war was based in part on its desire to build a pipeline to Turkey through Syria: “The discovery in 2009 of a new gas field near Israel, Lebanon, Cyprus, and Syria opened new possibilities to bypass the Saudi Barrier and to secure a new source of income. Pipelines are in place already in Turkey to receive the gas. Only Al-Assad is in the way. Wiki
That northern corridor just happens to coincide perfectly with the proposed territory needed to give the Kurds for the creation of the new Kurdistan. It also will provide a perfect path for a proposed pipeline to run out of Qatar, up through the length of Iraq, across the conquered north of Syria, straight to the Mediterranean Sea and finally on to ports serving greater Europe. Or it could connect to the Turkish Nabucco Pipeline and get to Germany even faster and cheaper.
This plan is in direct competition with the new pipeline announced by the Russians which aims to serve the same consumer base: Europe.
“To bypass the Saudi Barrier” and “all that stands in the way is Assad“. That was penned in 2012.
Didn’t we just close our embassy in Saudi Arabia? Yes we did.
With all this in mind, we’ll call it the objective, there was a little conference held last week (starting March 11th) in Kurdish controlled Iraq at the American University of Iraq (founded in 2007)
The conference of “Iraqi leaders, thinkers and academics” was called the Sulaimani Forum.
The conference was all about dealing with the “new realities” in Iraq. The fact that it was held in “Iraqi Kurdistan” (not really a country as of yet) is important to keep in mind especially when you consider the fact that the MSM is suddenly starting to talk about the Iraqi death-squads and the brutal treatment of the Iraqi people by our our latest and last puppet regimes.
Attending that conference were a few interesting individuals (three to start with) that I thought you should know about.
The Players
1. General David Petraeus
In a Washington Post interview with Liz Sly (who also attended the Sulaimani Forum) Gen. Petraeus laid out one of the most disingenuous explanations of the troubles in Iraq I have read to date.
However, that said, when you read between the lines and get past the spin, what he actually did for us is confirm a number of things we have been writing since “ISIS” was created and shed a little light on a few other topics (namely: the blaming of Iran)
Petraeus would have us all believe that the problems in Iraq lie mainly with the former puppet we installed, Prime Minister Maliki and his reluctance to include the Sunnis in the “democratic” government.
He would also have us believe that Iranians are the ones behind the Shite death-squads killing civilians and torching entire villages.
These are ridiculous claims but they do tell us something.
The proximate cause of Iraq’s unraveling was the increasing authoritarian, sectarian and corrupt conduct of the Iraqi government and its leader after the departure of the last U.S. combat forces in 2011. The actions of the Iraqi prime minister undid the major accomplishment of the Surge. (They) alienated the Iraqi Sunnis and once again created in the Sunni areas fertile fields for the planting of the seeds of extremism, essentially opening the door to the takeover of the Islamic State. Petraeus
He admits the troubles started in 2011 which is accurate because that is the same time that the real uprising began in Iraq. At first it was simply peaceful demonstrations from the Sunni groups who wanted representation in a more inclusive government once the U.S. pulled out it’s troops.
The Sunnis had been brutally repressed by Maliki and our puppet government for years and were sick of it. They saw a chance to make a change and they rose up against the tyrant we left in charge.
The protests were crushed with brutal force by the Maliki government and that created a backlash. That’s what Petraeus disingenuously refers to as the Sunnis being “alienated” I suppose. The brutality of the government backed death-squads and military police is practically legendary.
And as always, anyone who resists our occupying powers holds an “extremist” viewpoint.
The former Baathists and generals from Saddam’s old regime got organized once the popular opinion turned so badly against Maliki and they began a campaign to retake their nation.
One thing that Petraeus makes clear is the fact that “ISIS” is not really the big problem in Iraq. He claims its now the Shite death-squads but rather than admitting they are the same ones we are currently backing and who are working for the new prime minister, he claims they are a tool of Iran which is an important explanation as too why they have recently been trying to align at least in the MSM Iran and these death-squads. It’s just another way to plant the seeds for regime change in that country.
These militia returned to the streets of Iraq in response to a fatwa by Shia leader Grand Ayatollah Sistani at a moment of extreme danger. And they prevented the Islamic State from continuing its offensive into Baghdad. Nonetheless, they have, in some cases, cleared not only Sunni extremists but also Sunni civilians and committed atrocities against them. Thus, they have, to a degree, been both part of Iraq’s salvation but also the most serious threat to the all-important effort of once again getting the Sunni Arab population in Iraq to feel that it has a stake in the success of Iraq rather than a stake in its failure. Longer term, Iranian-backed Shia militia could emerge as the preeminent power in the country, one that is outside the control of the government and instead answerable to Tehran. Petraeus
In the end, Petraeus tells us we have to solve the problems in Iraq and Syria at the same time, with the same fell swoop. Again, that mirrors the calls from Rand Paul, AVAAZ and most of the MSM to form a “humanitarian bombing campaign” in Syria in hopes of creating a new, stable Kurdistan out of the remnants of the two.
Any strategy to stabilize the region thus needs to take into account the challenges in both Iraq and Syria. It is not sufficient to say that we’ll figure them out later. Petraeus
It should be noted his history in Iraq during the “surge” involved Shite death-squads suppressing the Sunnis and any other non-believers even back then.
2. Dov Zakheim
Just mentioning his name in relation to this summit should be all I need to do. Dov has been involved at the ground floor level of almost every single disaster and war-crime committed by our foreign policy since 9/11.
In fact, Dov was on the ground floor during 9/11. It was his offices that were struck by something that day. They were supposedly trying to figure out what happened to the missing 2.3 trillion dollars that Donald Rumsfeld announced was gone on Sept. 10th. Dov was out of the office at that particular moment but 100 of his staff members weren’t. They were killed. He lives on. The records that would have been used to locate that missing money were burned up in the resulting fire.
Dov was also around when the Vulcans met long before 9/11. They were getting together to map out Bush’s foreign policy agenda, basically the Global Free Market Wars, the 100 Years War, the Endless War on Terrorism, long before Bush had a Supreme Court Justice rush into court demanding they stop counting ballots in Florida.
Zakheim was part of the team that laid out the plans for the failed Iraq state at the beginning.
Whenever there is a war-crime or a crime against humanity to craft for the Greater Pipelinistan, Dov is always there to lend a helping hand. He’s always in the background. Doesn’t like his presence to be known. But he’s there, none-the-less with his “plots and plans”
Zakheim should be in prison. Some believe, I’m one of them, that the man should be hung for treason.
Instead, he’s on the Board of Trustees at American University in Iraq more specifically, American University in Iraqi Kurdistan. He’s helping to shape young Middle Eastern minds in his image and that is a very, very scary proposition.
It is only fitting that Dov Zakheim is on the ground floor mapping out our next major geopolitical failure in the region. Fitting and telling if one is to consider the lessons of history.
3. President of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani
Lastly, we need to talk about the person, or should I say “royal corrupt family”, we are going to install at the head of our new “democratic beacon in the Middle East”, Greater Kurdistan.
Rarely is someone in such a position already exposed as a tyrant and dictator as President of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani already is. Usually it takes a while for us to know what a greedy, monstrous POS he is.
In this case, we’ve known he’s a scumbag for a while.
Even the neoliberal pundits have had to admit it which means he’s even worse than they say.
The following is a long quote from the Middle Eastern Forum “Promoting America’s Interests”. It specifically addresses Barzani’s corruption and the new “Iraqi Kurdistan”
Because Iraqi Kurdistan lacks a constitution, Barzani and other senior political leaders can exercise unchecked, arbitrary power. The absence of accountability and a free press has enabled corruption, abuse, and mismanagement to increase.
Nepotism is widespread. Not only is the prime minister the nephew of the president, but the president’s son, Masrour Barzani, a scarcely-qualified 34-year-old, heads the local intelligence service. Another Barzani son is the commander of the Special Forces. And Masoud Barzani installed his uncle, Hoshyar Zebari, as Iraq’s foreign minister when the political party heads were distributing patronage. Other relatives hold key positions in ministries or executive offices. PUK leader Jalal Talabani has only one wife and two children and so has less patronage to distribute. Still, one son oversees PUK security and the other is the Kurdistan Regional Government’s representative to the United States. When the major Iraqi political parties divided up the ministry portfolios in Baghdad, Talabani awarded the PUK’s slot to his brother-in-law. Another brother-in-law is the Iraqi ambassador in Beijing.
Other Barzani and Talabani relatives have monopolized telecommunications, construction, and trade. Those who have no relatives in power sit at the bottom of every hierarchy. Merit is seldom a factor in promotion. While it is possible for non-family members to become ministers, they must have a long record of submission to the Barzani or Talabani families. Many Iraqi Kurds welcomed Iraq’s liberation, calculating that the presence of U.S. forces would also help solidify democracy in the Kurdistan region. They now question whether more than 3,000 U.S. troops sacrificed their lives to enable oligarchy. ME Forum
A more recent article from Alternet echos the concerns.
Yet not all is well in Kurdistan, due in part to the dominant presence of one ruling family. Descended from a political dynasty that has built a power base over centuries of fighting, regional president Massoud Barzani has blossomed into an authoritarian ruler not unlike many whose regimes are now crumbling from the internal pressures of the Arab Spring…
… However, the cracks in the family’s image are accentuated by political dissent, and the official story of the ruling Kurdish Democratic Party’s (KDP) road to power has often been challenged. “The people were the ones who first fought in the city and defeated Hussein’s troops in 1991’s revolution,” said Adar, who runs a small hotel downtown. “The Peshmerga [militia] came down two days later from the mountains after it was all over and claimed the power. This is the truth that many people in Erbil are afraid to speak of,” he said…
… However, Kurdish journalists Soran Mama Hama and Sardasht Osman were not so lucky; they were gunned down for writing about corruption by the political class and local governments. Demands for thorough and transparent investigations were met by Kurdish authorities maneuvering to blame others for the deaths; to this day both cases remain unsolved. Even a brief expression of criticism toward the Barzanis, such as one anonymous caller’s comments on a television call-in program, resulted in a bombing of the studio the very next day. As usual, the perpetrators were never found…
…One of the most sensitive subjects is the Barzanis’ involvement in the economy of the newly rich oil state. While Massoud Barzani’s personal wealth is estimated to be in the range of $2 billion, the exact amount of the family’s involvement is unknown due to Kurdistan’s murky legal environment and a web of offshore cross-ownership entities..
… in 2012, Mansur Barzani, the son of Massoud, lost over $3.2 million in a Dubai casino during the elder Barzani’s official state visit. Meanwhile the other son, Masrour, purchased a $10-million home in the U.S. state of Virginia. Officially, they were both living on modest government salaries—with Masrour heading the security and intelligence services Alternet
These are the people, this is the family, that folks like Zakheim, Petraeus, Rand Paul, the “progressives” at AVAAZ and apparently Barack Obama wish to put in charge of the soon to be newly formed Greater Kurdistan.
It almost sounds like they intend to create a new Saudi Arabia out of the remains of Iraq, Turkey and Syria. Like the New World Order, its a “big idea” as Poppy Bush would say.
And it may be the only idea they have left.
What’s in a Name?
As Iraq tumbles into chaos once again, we are being carefully instructed to stop using the term “ISIS” for the forces we are at war with.
Partly that gentle shift is occurring because “ISIS” or “IS” is more and more associated with fake beheading videos.
The other reason is simple, they want us to use the “DAESH” instead.
“DAESH” is slang in Iraq meaning “to trample down and crush” or “to tread underfoot, trample down, crush”
“ISIS” is a specific target. You don’t trample or crush terrorists, you trample or crush an uprising. That’s why they talk about “DAESH”
Endgame Approaches
Up until now we have been running a destabilization campaign in Syria in order to remove Assad because he refuses to allow our pipeline to run through his country. We’ve been doing that under the cover of fighting “ISIS”
We have been supporting death-squads in Iraq helping our brutal regime repress an uprising from the north of Sunni Baathists once aligned with Saddam. We have been doing that under the cover of fighting “ISIS” as well.
Today it’s becoming very clear that the endgame is upon us.
We have entered the desperation mode in the Middle East.
Support for our sanction regime against Russia is slipping away fast while many of our allies are starting to sign on the dotted line with the new BRICS bank.
Instability with the once mighty Euro Zone is starting to show. Grexit looms on the horizon. Who knows who leaves after that.
Russia is winning not only the battle for Pipelinistan but also the global hearts and minds campaign as the U.S. increasingly has to resort to brutality and terrorism in order to maintain it’s failing hegemony in Europe and the Middle East.
The petro dollar is losing ground.
Sometimes it is said, that the only out is to go deeper in and it would seem that Obama’s administration is following that advice or at least that is the choice being made by the advisers who surround him.
Bombing Syria to make a Greater Kurdistan is possibly the worst idea in a long line of really bad ideas our leaders (like Zaheim) have come up with. But at this point, after that lovely conference in Iraqi Kurdistan at Dov’s school, it may be a forgone conclusion like bombing Iraq was in 2002. They just need the right justification for it, that’s all.
What it may unleash though, aside from the corrupt Barzani family, could be regional conflict that expands far beyond the Middle East with the speed of a forest fire spreading into Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Yemen, Chechnya, Ukraine and perhaps right up to the border of Russia itself.
It’s a bold, stupid, desperate move crafted by proven failures at such things. And nothing good ever comes of those.
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