Bush Blunders Push New Iraq Civil War

Baghdad Regine, back by Iran, opposes top U.S. ally in the region with U.S. backed Army. BUSH BLUNDERS PUSH NEW IRAQI CIVIL WAR Kurds Ready to Fight to Regain Homeland Taken by Saddam and Baathists

Iraqi flag at a security checkpoint near Balad. Salem-News.com photo by Tim King

(CLEVELAND, Ohio ) - When abandoned by every nation in the region, only the Kurds stood by America to overthrow Saddam. These were the same Kurds who had been slaughtered by Saddam after helping America in the first Gulf War.

President George H.W. Bush stepped aside and allowed Saddam to murder tens of thousands of Kurds, most women and children. This is the crime Saddam was executed for by Bush II, a crime facilitated by Bush I.

Oil rich Kirkuk is a Kurdish city with a minor Turkmen population. Arabs in Kirkuk were moved in by Saddam when Kurds were "resettled" or slaughtered. This is not an Arab region in Iraq. Kirkuk is pure Kurd.

Kurdish Prime Minister Barzani and Iraq President Malaki, believed to be a ally of Iran by most, are locked in a struggle over the oil wealth of that region. Kurd militias and US armed troops from the Baghdad regime faced off June 28th over a key village in that region. The ignorant Bush/Rice policy in Iraq, utterly lacking in understanding of regional issues or respecting the US debt to our long suffering Kurdish allies could only be intended to push majority Shiites in Iraq into a coalition with Iran.

News stories reporting on this conflict conveniently omit Kurdish history. Our NATO partner, Turkey, that refused to allow US troops access to Northern Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom, has long been an enemy of our Kurdish allies. If Turkey had joined with the US, the military disaster that led to years of conflict might have been averted. Instead, the US depended on Kurdish armies to defeat Saddam in Northern Iraq.

Reports of Kurdish incursions in and around Kirkuk fail to mention that the Arabs in the region are remnants of Saddam's occupation forces, not residents. The efforts by the Baghdad government to continue control of this Kurdish region is driven by need to control the regions oil revenues and continue to fuel Iraq's massive corruption.

Few countries on Earth outside Great Britain and Israel hold more affection for the United States than Kurdistan. Actually, of course, Kurdistan doesn't exist. The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 ignored 40 millon Kurds when they created nations out of the failed Ottoman empire. Kurdistan extends from Syria, Turkey, Iraq and into Iran with only the KRG (Kurdish Regional Government) in Iraq with any degree of autonomy.

Turkey has invaded Iraq several times in their battle with the PKK, a Kurdish group that crisscrosses the Iraq Kurdish border. Turkey is making increasing efforts to recognize regional autonomy for their Kurdish regions but conflicts continue.

The current Kurdish capital is Irbil, a thriving and peaceful city in the north of Iraq. Irbil is, in many ways, the economic capital of Iraq with regular commercial flights to Europe every day and the beginnings of a tourist industry.

We may have armed our former enemies in Baghdad and agreed to submit to their demands that our troops remain sequested. In the process, we have emboldened our former enemies toward additional acts of aggression against our friends.

Is it ignorance or is an oil deal, an arms trade or a payoff of some kind involved. No sensible person can rule these issues out when reviewing Bush foreign policy failures.

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Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran and a regular contributor to Veterans Today. He specializes in political and social issues. You can see a large collection of Gordon's published articles at this link: VeteransToday.com.

He is an outspoken advocate for veterans and his powerful words have brought about change. Gordon is a lifelong PTSD sufferer from his war experiences and he is empathetic to the plight of today's veterans also suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. We greatly appreciate the opportunity to feature Gordon's timely and critical reports on Salem-News.com, a news organization staffed by a number of veterans, particularly former U.S. Marines.

You can send Gordon Duff an email at this address: Gpduf@aol.com