Strip of Iraq ‘on the Verge of Exploding’
Kurds Extend Role Beyond Autonomous Borders, Angering Arabs

By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 13, 2008; A01

JALAWLA, Iraq — Kurdish leaders have expanded their authority over a roughly 300-mile-long swath of territory beyond the borders of their autonomous region in northern Iraq, stationing thousands of soldiers in ethnically mixed areas in what Iraqi Arabs see as an encroachment on their homelands.

The assertion of greater Kurdish control, which has taken hold gradually since the war began and caused tens of thousands of Arabs to flee their homes, is viewed by Iraqi Arab and U.S. officials as a provocative and potentially destabilizing action.

“Quickly moving into those areas to try and change the population and flying KRG flags in areas that are specifically not under the KRG control right now — that is counterproductive and increases tensions,” said Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, referring to the Kurdistan Regional Government, which administers the autonomous region.

The long-cherished dream of many of the world’s 25 million ethnic Kurds is an independent state that encompasses parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. All but Iraq adamantly oppose Kurdish autonomy, much less a Kurdish state. Iraqi Kurds continue to insist they are not seeking independence, even as they unilaterally expand the territory they control in Iraq.

The predominantly Arab-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in recent weeks has sent the Iraqi army to drive Kurdish forces out of some of the lands, ordering Kurdish troops, known as pesh merga, to retreat north of the boundary of the Kurdish autonomous region.

The face-off between the Iraqi army and pesh merga has stoked fears of Arab-Kurdish strife just as Iraqis begin to recover from years of sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis.

Without doubt the surge as a military tactic has been a successful exercise. As just a piece of an overall strategy–an ill defined, ideologically bankrupt, failing strategy–it has done all that anyone could ever expect. Now, how do you define victory in an occupation?