In openDemocracy.net, what the Iraq Study Group’s suggestions mean for the Kurds:
In a retrograde step, the ISG unapologetically makes five potentially damaging recommendations:
- suspension and/or gross manipulation of the democratically adopted constitution
- inhibition of the constitutionally agreed referendum on the fate of the arabised city of Kirkuk, representing yet another major betrayal of the Kurds
- centralisation of power in Baghdad, in a return to dictatorial central government
- rewarding extremists by their integration into the Iraqi state machinery
- reaching out to appease terrorists and their sponsoring countries.
Thus, the US’s arch-enemies – Iran, Syria, al-Qaida, Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi army and Saddamists – are among the winners; so, too, are Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. Bush’s policymakers and their main Iraqi allies (Kurds and some Shi’a) are the chief losers.