Oil and the Kurdish Question: How Democracies Go to War in the Era of Late Capitalism PDF
Preview Oil and the Kurdish Question: How Democracies Go to War in the Era of Late Capitalism
Oil and the Kurdish Question Oil and the Kurdish Question How Democracies Go to War in the Era of Late Capitalism Stephen C. Pelletiere LEXINGTONBOOKS Lanham•Boulder•NewYork•London PublishedbyLexingtonBooks AnimprintofTheRowman&LittlefieldPublishingGroup,Inc. 4501ForbesBoulevard,Suite200,Lanham,Maryland20706 www.rowman.com UnitA,WhitacreMews,26-34StannaryStreet,LondonSE114AB Copyright©2016byLexingtonBooks Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyformorbyany electronicormechanicalmeans,includinginformationstorageandretrievalsystems, withoutwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher,exceptbyareviewerwhomayquote passagesinareview. BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationInformationAvailable LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Names:Pelletiere,StephenC.,author. Title:OilandtheKurdishquestion:howdemocraciesgotowarintheeraoflatecapitalism/Stephen C.Pelletiere. Description:Lanham,Md.:LexingtonBooks,[2016]|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. Identifiers:LCCN2015051389(print)|LCCN2016002751(ebook)|ISBN9781498516662(cloth: alk.paper)|ISBN9781498516679(electronic) Subjects:LCSH:Iran-IraqWar,1980-1988.|Halabjah(Iraq)–History–Bombardment,1988.|Anfal Campaign,Iraq,1986-1989.|MiddleEast–Politicsandgovernment.|UnitedStates–Military relations–MiddleEast.|MiddleEast–Militaryrelations–UnitedStates. Classification:LCCDS318.85.P4562016(print)|LCCDS318.85(ebook)|DDC955.05/421–dc23 LCrecordavailableathttp://lccn.loc.gov/2015051389 TMThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsofAmerican NationalStandardforInformationSciencesPermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibrary Materials,ANSI/NISOZ39.48-1992. PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica TothelibrariansatRootHall,theU.S.ArmyWarCollege,andatthe ArmyHeritageandEducationCenter,CarlisleBarracks,Pa Contents Preface ix Introduction xi 1 BackgroundofEvents 1 2 CritiquingtheNarrative 39 3 TheTrialofSaddamHussein 79 4 ACorruptEnterprise 103 5 DeathofaSystem 137 Conclusion 173 Appendix:TheRealmPaper 175 SelectedBibliography 179 Index 185 AbouttheAuthor 195 vii Preface ThisexaminationoftheSecondIraqWarsuggeststhattheKurdishQues- tionwascruciallytiedinwithit,anundeclaredaimofthewar planners being to ensure the emergence of a quasi-independent entity of “Kurdi- stan.”The“freeing”oftheKurdswaspresentedasagreathumanrights endeavor, whereas actually it was, practically speaking, a crude power grab. For long it had been known to parties in the United States (and abroad)thatatroveofuntapped,easilyobtainableoilunderlaythethree northern Kurdish provinces of Iraq. Since the 1960s efforts had been made to keep the oil out of the hands of a succession of Arab Socialist regimesintheknowledgethat,werethegovernmentstogaincontrol,the oil would then be nationalized; thus revenue from exploiting the fields wouldbelosttoprivateenterprise. The agency whereby access was denied was a tribe of Kurds, the Barzanis.Thetribehadbeeninrebellionsince1961,arevoltsustainedby outside intervention that took the form of supplying the Barzanis with armsandfinancialbacking.TheupsetvictoryofIraqintheIran-IraqWar (1980–1988) seemed set to doom the interventionist enterprise. For now the way was clear for the Ba’thist government of Saddam Hussein to crushtherevoltfinallyandforever—atwhichpoint,variouspartiesinter- vened. AgreathueandcrywasraisedintheUnitedStatesovertheBa’thists having allegedly perpetrated a monstrous human rights atrocity that claimed the lives of 182,000 Kurds, and even though no verifiable evi- dencetosubstantiatetheclaimwasproduced,publicityinthemediawas such that Iraq’s efforts to possess the holdout territory were checked. Then, when Saddam Hussein defied sanctions laid on by the U.S. Con- gress,theFirstIraqWarensued,whereintheBa’thistsweredefeatedbut remainedrecalcitrant,whichmadeanotherwarinevitable. This scheme of expropriating Kurdish oil lands for profit miscarried whentheprojectorsoverreached:theyenvisionedIraqasadressrehear- sal for yet another war, this time against Syria, which would end by redrawingthemapoftheMiddleEastandintheprocesssecuritizeIsrael, and this aim was part of the original scheme worked out by the war planners. This book describes how the grand strategy was botched. Not only didtheaimofcarryingthewartoSyriaandbeyondmiscarry,butalsoin ix
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