Another winner of the Iraq War

The latest edition of FP asks, “Who Wins in Iraq?” and features essays on 10 winners of the Iraq War. This diverse set includes Iran, China, and Samuel P. Huntington. One winner has been left out, however: Kurdistan. All the nation-building fantasies of the Bush administration have come true, but only in Iraq’s northeast corner. ...

603026_Kurdistan5.jpg
603026_Kurdistan5.jpg

The latest edition of FP asks, "Who Wins in Iraq?" and features essays on 10 winners of the Iraq War. This diverse set includes Iran, China, and Samuel P. Huntington.

The latest edition of FP asks, “Who Wins in Iraq?” and features essays on 10 winners of the Iraq War. This diverse set includes Iran, China, and Samuel P. Huntington.

One winner has been left out, however: Kurdistan.

All the nation-building fantasies of the Bush administration have come true, but only in Iraq’s northeast corner. An opera house, a large bowling alley, and a mall with 8,000 shops and stalls are under construction in Kurdistan. English is taught as a second language in many schools, and an American university is in the works. Austrian Airlines has begun flights into the capital of Erbil. Best of all, the people are pro-American, and the security forces are loyal and well-behaved.

Not one American soldier has been killed in the Kurdish-controlled area, and only 60 to 70 U.S. troops are even stationed in the region.

The Kurds, who are not Arabs, see themselves as citizens of Kurdistan, not Iraq. They have their own 175,000-person army, their own prime minister, and their own flag. Their immigration officials even stamp your passport with a Kurdish stamp.

The contested city of Kirkuk will hold a referendum by November 15, 2007, to decide if it’s part of Kurdistan or Iraq. Many Iraq analysts have warned that the vote could bring the aloof Kurds into the rest of Iraq’s sectarian nightmare. Those fears have died down recently, but there’s another time bomb ticking: On April 11, 2008, an Iraqi moratorium on the creation of federal regions expires. Powerful Shiite groups want to carve out their own political space in the south of Iraq, and that lead to instability across the entire Middle East.

Find out why this and other dates in the future could shake the world in this week’s List: Time Bombs.

Preeti Aroon was copy chief at Foreign Policy from 2009 to 2016 and was an FP assistant editor from 2007 to 2009. Twitter: @pjaroonFP

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