Strong Kurds are good for Iraq
Friday, July 17, 2009 at 1:51AM ARTICLE: Kurds Defy Baghdad, Laying Claim to Land and Oil, By SAM DAGHER, New York Times, July 9, 2009
No offense to the Veep and others, but this is some serious hype:
American diplomatic and military officials have said the potential for a confrontation with the Kurds has emerged as a threat as worrisome to Iraq's fate as the remnants of the insurgency.
If you want a strong federation, you need strong constituent states to force that issue. The Kurds are playing this role, but their role is being matched nowhere in the south, which is given, thanks to the ascendancy of the Shia, toward seriously unitary tendencies (the rise of Maliki).
Accommodating the Kurds is making federalism work in Iraq. Frankly, that path offers the Sunni a better future than one that sees them subsumed within a unitary Shia-led state.
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