MidEastWeek.com is a new publication. It provides insight into recent MidEast developments from a definite point of view. Overall, the MidEast outlook is highly positive, despite appearances, and in opposition to the conventional wisdom. The MidEast outlook is bright because Turkey and its allies (Russia, Syria and Saudi Arabia) are rising, while Nazi Iran and its allies (Kurds and the US) are falling. This means that Iran's terrorist movements -- Hamas, Hezbollah and Iraq's Badr Brigades -- are in terminal decline. Ahmadinejad, who worships Adolph Hitler, is on the way out.
In other words, a US victory in the war on terrorism, at least in the Middle East, is just around the corner.
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EDITORIAL
by Scott Sullivan
US Must Deter the PKK
June 12, 2007 01:36 PM EST
So far, US policy in the Turkish-Kurdish conflict has boosted the PKK. The US has repeatedly warned Turkey against using force in northern Iraq. The US has backed up Iraq's offer to protect the PKK in northern Iraq with Iraqi (and therefore US) troops. The US backs Iraq's plan to stage a referendum this year transferring the city of Kirkuk and its oil wealth over to Barzani and the PKK. Finally, in relations with Iraq, the US maintains a series of bilateral policies that favor the Kurdish secessionists, such as not requiring the Kurds to fly the Iraqi flag on their territory (more of these US pro-Kurdish policies art detailed below).
Now, in the latest US concession to the PKK, the US is demanding that Turkey negotiate with Iraqi PM Nouri Malaki on Kurdish issues. This US demand insults Turkey because Kurdish leaders Talabani and Barzani own the Maliki government. In other words, if Secretary Rice has a policy that the US favors the PKK, and that she wants a Turkish capitulation to the PKK, she should lay it on the table.
I think the US is making a huge strategic blunder by favoring the Kurdish secessionists, who will be the losers. Instead, The US should reassure Turkey’s military (the Unionists) by making explicit US policies that would preclude an independent Kurdistan, deter the PKK from using northern Iraq as a staging area for attacks inside Turkey, and discourage the Kurdish-Iranian alliance aimed at partitioning Iraq.
If the US fails to reassure Turkey, then the US itself becomes a major contributor to Turkey’s crisis. Moreover, short sighted US policies that favor the Kurds and Iran play directly into the hand of Turkey’s military, giving the military yet another “bloody shirt” issue in politics in addition to preserving Turkish secularism.
How can the US reassure Turkey on the Kurds and Iran? The most important steps the US can take are those which close the door to US recognition of independent statehood for the Kurdish regional government (KRG) in Iraq.
First, the US should maintain its current travel advisory for the Kurdish area, in line with the policy for Iraq as a whole. Establishing a separate Kurdish travel advisory, as desired by the KRG, promotes Kurdish separatism.
Second, the US should instruct the KRG to restore the Iraqi flag in the Kurdish area. A KRG failure to raise the Iraqi flag will be met with Iraqi prosecution of Kurdish officials, including Barzani.
Third, instruct the KRG that no future meetings will take place between KRG officials and officials of Iran’s paramilitary organizations such as the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and the Quds Force.
Fourth, inform the KRG that continued tolerance of the PKK presence will be met with a withdrawal of US forces from the Kurdish area.
Fifth, the US shall discourage USG agencies such as the Commerce Department from visiting the KRG without coordinating the visit first with the Baghdad government.
Sixth, the US shall instruct US oil companies to sign agreements with the Baghdad government, prior to signing agreements with the KRG.
Seventh, the US shall inform Iran that Iran’s encouragement of Kurdish and Shi’ite separatism in Iraq, as by Iran’s attempted takeover of Basra in southern Iraq, shall be considered a hostile act against the US.
Eighth, from this day forward, the US shall refer to the Kurds as Iraqi secessionists, and to Sunni and Shi'ite opponents of Kurds as "the unionists."
In short, US policy today is fueling Middle East conflicts by encouraging Kurdish secessionists in Iraq. If the US is serious about restoring stability to Iraq, the US must change US policy in ways that explicitly and without exception preclude the breakup of Iraq. (An earlier version of this article appeared on May 02, 2007.)
ASSESSMENTS
Pelosi Will Challenge Bush on Iran
NOTE: I wrote this forecast in July 06 to encourage Rep. Hastert to take on President Bush over his concessions to Iran. To bring it up to date, just substitute Pelosi where you see Hastert.
Scott Sullivan 22 July 06
Rep. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House of Representatives and the next president should Bush-Cheney be driven from office over Iraq, is now running a higher profile on foreign policy issues. Hastert has dispatched his own fact-finding mission to the Middle East, led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra. This mission is sure to find that US failure in the Middle East, beginning in Iraq, is already assuming catastrophic proportions. The only "good" news for the Bush administration is that the crisis in Lebanon, which caught the Bush administration unaware and unprepared, has driven the Iraq failure from the news. This will not last long, with the body count in Baghdad rising week by week.
The root of the US failure is the Bush-Cheney defection to Tehran. The U.S. Executive Branch has already become the "Iranian" branch of government, and the Bush team is trying to convert the Republican Party into the "Iranian" party. President Bush's sabotage of bipartisan congressional legislation (ILSA) mandating sanctions against Iran was a case in point.
Rep. Hastert is in a delicate position. He does not share the Bush Administration's ardent pro-Iran agenda. Yet to oppose this agenda is to impeach President Bush. Moreover, Rep. Hastert knows that if he does not block Bush-Cheney, Rep. Pelosi and the Democratic Party will do so, and recapture the House in the November elections.
In short, look for Rep. Hastert to break with President Bush, and soon. It is not out of the question, as the bad news from Iraq keeps rolling in, to see the House Republicans draw up the articles of impeachment. Better President Hastert than President Pelosi!
07.24.2007 03:18:00 AM
Unionists Against Secessionists in Iraq
Many readers complain that western op-eds do not treat the Kurdish point of view with objectivity. This may be true. Westerners are not well versed in the arcane details of who actually has legal title to Kirkuk -- the Kurds, Turkmen or Arabs. Like most legal issues of this type, each side has a valid case to present, and outsiders are not able to pick one version of the truth over another.
A better way forward on Kurdish issues, aside from an appeal to international law, is to ...
Read more 06.23.2007 04:23:37 AM
Iran Needs Hitler, not Ernst Rohm
To conquer the Middle East, Iran needs Adolph Hitler and the Blackshirts/SS. Instead, Iran is being governed by Ernst Rohm and the Brownshirts/SA, in the person of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). As a result, Iran’s drive for empire in the Middle East will end in early spectacular failure that will drag down Ahmadinejad and quite possibly the Islamic Republic government as a whole.
Ernst Rohm was an officer in the Imperial Germany Army who, a...
Read more 06.23.2007 04:19:50 AM
Turkey/Syria Protect Palestine/Iraq
Stormtroopers Ahmadinejad and Barzani are assaulting the Arabs. This week Ahmadinejad sabotaged Palestine while promoting Kurdistan. Ahmadinejad sabotaged Palestine by giving Hamas the green light to take Gaza, thereby dividing the Palestinian Authority and destroying the possibility of a Palestinian state. Ahmadinejad has made a mockery of fifty years of struggle and martyrdom for an independent Palestine.
Why did Ahmadinejad destroy Palestine? Ahmadinejad destroyed Palestine t...
Read more 06.22.2007 05:38:06 AM
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Unionists Against Secessionists in Iraq
Iran Needs Hitler, not Ernst Rohm
Turkey/Syria Protect Palestine/Iraq
Turkey Must Protect Kirkuk and Basra
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Scott Sullivan's Background:
National Security Council (1982-1984)
Department of Defense (1984-2004)
Office of International Security Affairs, and office of Special Operations Forces, Policy Planning