Column 139
Sunday, February 1, 2009 at 1:55AM Obama must not sell out Kurdish Iraq
My company, Enterra Solutions, has performed development work inside northern Iraq for close to two years, proving out an economic "connect-up" model we call Development-in-a-Box. That experience leads me to believe that the Kurds' success in nation building could ultimately be their undoing when it comes to President Obama's plan to rapidly withdraw our troops.
First off, let me correct my mistake in identifying citizens of the Kurdistan Regional Government as "Kurds," because their leaders prefer the term Kurdistanis, a label they compare to Americans. Why? Kurds aren't the only people living in the KRG, they note, so let's make clear that citizenship isn't tied to ethnicity.
Read on at KnoxNews.
Read on at Scripps Howard.
Reader Comments (3)
Under the Obama-Biden plan, a residual force will remain in Iraq and in the region to conduct targeted counter-terrorism missions against al Qaeda in Iraq and protect American diplomatic and civilian personnel. They will not build permanent bases in Iraq, but will continue efforts to train and support the Iraqi security forces as long as Iraqi leaders move toward political reconciliation and away from sectarianism.
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We should also mention that, meager or not, the effort, the regional security dialogue (where available, at every level), and the regional commitment they yielded were just enough to turn things around in Iraq’s stability and security without (arguably) giving in (or giving up) on principle and long-term objective overmuch in the effort, meager or not.