Kurdish Commander Wants Permanent U.S. Base in Northern Iraq

[sabra]

http://www.aina.org/news/20061101135531.htm

Kurdish Commander Wants Permanent U.S. Base in Northern Iraq

The commander of a major faction of Kurdish troops in Iraq says he would welcome the establishment of a permanent American military facility in northern Iraq, where Kurds are the dominant ethnic group.

"We highly support building a U.S. military base in Kurdistan," says Mustafa Said Qadir, deputy commander of "peshmerga" militia forces in 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."

...

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 . 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.

[GainesT1958]

1. Well, if we WERE going to have a base in the area...

That would be the ONLY logical place to put one...particularly if it's in an independent Kurdistan. Such a state would be our second-most-reliable ally in the Middle East.

B-)

[olshak]

3. This would also...

...help stabilize the nation if we were to move forward with a partitioning plan accompanied by a weak central government. I think it would be a good place to have a presence. That assumes that we don't win the peace with the Kurds as effectively as we have with the Sunnis and Shi'a.

[saigon68]

5. I don't think the Turks will like this

[olshak]

6. Maybe...maybe not...

...it might be the only way that Turkey accepts an autonomous Kurdish state.

[nealmhughes]

10. I agree. The Kurds would be "safe" from Turkish and Iranian revanche were we there.

Turkey would be bound by NATO and her desire to get into the EU, and noone would sanely attack a major US ally.

The Kurds have been getting a raw deal for 1000 years. Rather like the Poles of Western Asia...
Got a problem in Europe? Let's all take a chunk of Poland! Got a problem between the Ottoman and Persian Empires? Take a chunk of Kurdistan!

Were anyone wanting to do business in the Middle East and not in a monarchy or a danger zone, then Kurdistan seems to be the best place to do it, and it frankly has very nice looking people and infrastructure as well as great mountain scenery!

The govt. is opening an American University really quickly, as well...instruction will be in English, based on the idea of the American U.s in Bulgaria and Lebanon.

[arewenotdemo]

2. See, Karzai and al-Maliki REALLY NEED to understand

that our troops are going to be there for as long as they want them there....

:rofl:

[Canuckistanian]

4. Sure, why not?

The Kurds are the only beneficiaries of the American military presence in Iraq. They're enjoying one of the best standards of living in the Arab world.

As long as they don't try to open their own oil bourse with Euros.....

[dazzlerazzle]

7. the other iraq

When they started their website promoting themselve's as "the other iraq" the media hardly said anything about it. In essence, they have already chosen to seperate themselves from the so call "unified iraq" and refuse to fly the interim flag. http://www.theotheriraq.com

[VegasWolf]

8. This would give Cheny/Halliburton control of the hugely productive northern

oil fields. I wonder how much the Bush cartel bribed these Kurdish politicans?

[wholetruth00]

9. But I thought the US "couldn't be the policemen of the world?"