The Kurdish Fuse...and Israel?

[serious_fun]

A decent piece by Raimundo found here: http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9658

[quote]One of the most interesting, and little-talked about, consequences of the Iraq war has been the extension of Israeli influence – and aid, including military aid – to Kurdistan. Seymour Hersh reported on this, and Le Figaro detailed the developing American-Israeli rift over the issue, with Washington increasingly nervous over the growing Israeli presence and what it portends for the region. The Turkish military, formerly best buddies with the IDF, are furious at what they consider to be a stab in the back by their sometime allies, and relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv have subsequently soured.

Israel’s interest is in establishing a base that borders Iran, from which to monitor developments in country and build an enclave from which to launch armed attacks. Pejak is the ideal instrument with which to accomplish this, and if Washington isn’t directly funding or otherwise aiding the Iranian Kurdish guerrilla group, then the Israelis surely haven’t neglected such an opportunity. [/quote]

interesting…the strained Turkish-US relations are a given, but Israel’s influence within Kurdish communities seems a bit much. The Kurds (or maybe just the Barzani family) will try to play them for fools or milk them for power and money…That is dangerous business.

Aside from a political culture cut out for authoritarianism, their political leadership, whether it be the KDP or the PUK, is notoriously opportunistic, and historically has often been a willing instrument of great powers. Both parties have aligned themselves with a bewildering variety of allies, foreign and domestic, ranging from the KGB to the CIA to the Mossad to the Iranians – and even Saddam Hussein – in order to cash in on some momentary advantage. Given their history and inclinations, the Kurds, in short, are the perfect pawns of the War Party – and the first moves have already been made.

Being a proxy army for the Neo-Jacobins does not guarantee security! In fact, I’d guess that the Kurds will be burned by this.

[quote]The Israelis are eager to use the Kurds as a tripwire for war, not only with Iran but with Syria, where restive Kurds have recently begun to rise against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. If the Israeli strategy is to spark a regional war that will rearrange the map of the Middle East and oust their enemies from Beirut to Tehran, then the Kurds are the perfect fuse. If you look at the claimed area of Kurdish predominance – “Greater Kurdistan” – it runs through Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and as far north as Armenia. Kurdistan, in short, is ideally located as a base from which to launch a campaign to destabilize Israel’s enemies and effect “regime change” throughout the Middle East.

As American foreign policy increasingly aligns itself with Israel’s, and the two allies settle their sights on Iran, Kurdistan takes on added importance. The price the Kurds are demanding for their cooperation – de facto independence – is one the U.S. may well be willing to pay if it means having an advantage in their coming showdown with Iran. Yeah, sure, Iraq is coming apart at the seams, with Sunnis slaughtering Shi’ites, and vice versa, but anyone who believes this is a major concern of Washington’s – except on the home front, insofar as it affects public support for an American military presence – is sadly mistaken. Iraq was then, Iran is now, and the War Party has already moved on to its next big project – with the Kurds playing a central role.[/quote]

more discussion re: Kurdistan:
http://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?t=53300