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US plan to (re)occupy Iraq faces resistance

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US plan to (re)occupy Iraq faces resistance
Global Village Space |

M K Bhadrakumar |

The US’s longstanding project to push for an independent Kurdistan in the oil-rich regions of northern Iraq and Syria in the downstream of the defeat of the ISIS has run into strong headwinds. This could have been anticipated because the plans essentially devolve upon the balkanization of Syria and Iraq, which will be seriously resisted by the non-Kurdish Arab people.

The Iraqi Vice-President Nouri Maliki did some plain speaking on Friday when he warned the US against any attempt to claw its way back into Iraq as an occupation force on the pretext of fighting the ISIS threat. Maliki said: “We do not want a military base in al-Waleed, the Iraqi society is against foreign bases on the country’s territory … I told the US side it was not in its interests to return to Iraq to establish military bases again.”

Now, Maliki didn’t speak out of turn. Three developments in the past ten days suggest that practical steps are being taken by other interested parties also to subvert the US calculus. Thus, Turkey simply decided to ‘declassify’ the exact location of the American military bases in northern Iraq in the Kurdish region.

Maliki was instrumental as the then Iraqi Prime Minister in slamming the door shut on continued US military presence beyond 2009. The Obama administration eventually settled scores by ousting Maliki and having him replaced by a more amiable leadership in Baghdad. But then, Maliki cannot be put down for long and the irrepressible Shi’ite politician is back on the center stage of Iraqi nationalism. The wheel has come full circle.

Read more: The Gulf crisis: A battle of megalomaniacs

Now, Maliki didn’t speak out of turn. Three developments in the past ten days suggest that practical steps are being taken by other interested parties also to subvert the US calculus. Thus, Turkey simply decided to ‘declassify’ the exact location of the American military bases in northern Iraq in the Kurdish region. It was supposed to be ‘Top Secret’ information but Turkish news agency Anadolu nonetheless published the details of their exact location, nature, and size ten days ago.

It transpires that the Pentagon has surreptitiously established not less than eleven US military bases in northern Syria so far.

Evidently, it is payback time for Turkey on the first anniversary of the attempted coup of July 15, 2016, which Ankara believes had CIA backing. Also, Turkey is livid that the US is consolidating its military presence in northern Syria and is beefing up the Kurdish militia by way of providing the strategic underpinning for an independent Kurdistan.

Unsurprisingly, Pentagon is peeved that the Turkish ‘leak’ puts the lives of US service personnel in jeopardy! Now, isn’t that funny? After all, war is a dangerous business; besides, when you go and set up a string of military bases in a far away country without bothering to even intimate the local government, you are asking for serious trouble.

True, the terrorist groups rampant in Syria and Iraq now know precisely where to hit if they want to get at American interests. Although the western media have been advised not to carry the Anadolu report, it is bazaar gossip now all over the Muslim Middle East. (The map detailing the 11 US bases is here.)

Evidently, it is payback time for Turkey on the first anniversary of the attempted coup of July 15, 2016, which Ankara believes had CIA backing. Also, Turkey is livid that the US is consolidating its military presence in northern Syria and is beefing up the Kurdish militia by way of providing the strategic underpinning for an independent Kurdistan.

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US plan to (re)occupy Iraq faces resistance

 
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