Why is an independent Kurdistan is bad news for some leaders?

Rizgar Khoshnaw | Exclusive to iKurd.net

The article was originally published on iKurd in 2012.

Recently, I have been reading the news that Iraq could be partitioned and many Kurds, and are rightfully so, are very happy and looking forward to that day. But at the same time, I would say this could be bad news for some Kurdish leaders!

I am sure many people wonder why I have reached such conclusion without a second thought or hesitation. I have only one reason to such conclusion and that is in the past nine years, the Americans have come to see what the Kurdish leaders do when ever money comes their way either by way of oil sales, corruption, money coming from the central government or any foreign aid money. This money somehow never funnels to the poor Kurdish citizens. Americans do not like to see abuse, injustice and unfairness and that is what most Kurdish leaders are in a habit of practicing.

Of course we all know that creating a Kurdish nation/country is only in the hands of the United States of America and no one else. We, and the Kurdish leaders, can fool ourselves by saying that the Kurds can achieve this alone, but no way on earth this is possible without the blessing and the help of the mighty U.S.! And if the U.S. does indeed involves itself with such move, helping in establishing a Kurdish nation, then things will have to change in Kurdistan dramatically.

And if the Kurdish government thinks that by having Exxon oil giant sign a contract with them will come to their rescue, they are very wrong. Exxon will not play any role when it comes to the American government deciding what to do with the Kurds and when. Furthermore, if the Kurdish leaders think that the American politicians that they bought will come to their rescue, that too is far from reality.

When it comes to knowing former and current American military and politicians that have joined the Kurdish Regional Government, the KRG, no one is better qualified than Dr. Michael Rubin to talk/write about this. He has written numerous articles about this subject. I have been following his writings and interviews for the past ten years and I have yet to see him wrong about anything that he writes or say about Kurdistan. I often search his web site and read his analysis and thoughts about Kurdish issues and takes notes.

To make myself clear, I am sure that the U.S. is fully cognizant of the abuse, injustice, corruption and the mismanagement of some Kurdish leaders. The U.S. has been in our region full time for the past nine years and they have witnessed/seen with their own eyes what is going on and how much corruption most Kurdish leaders are involved in. At the same time, the U.S. is also aware that most Kurdish citizens are fed up with the injustice in Kurdistan. I do not need to give examples of this since most people are aware of this already.

I am sure that many of us visiting or living in Kurdistan have witnessed the road closures whenever a Kurdish “politician” or as we say in Kurdish, ” Masool” drive by with 20 or 30 Land cruisers vehicles following him/her. If it is true that the people love their leaders, why then the heavy security?? It is very obvious that most Kurdish citizens have no love for most of their so called leaders.

I think if the Kurds do indeed end up with a nation, the U.S. will move to make some serious changes when it comes to the Kurdish government. By doing so, the U.S. will prove to everyone that they are truly the liberators and are sincere about bringing democracy to the Middle-East. Only then will the U.S. win the heart and minds of the Kurdish citizens. I think we have seen this to be true since the removal of many Arab leaders from power in the past few months.

Finally, I am convinced that most Kurdish leaders are thinking along the line of what I just wrote and that is why most of them have invested millions upon millions of dollars (purchasing huge mansions among other things) in the U.S., Europe and the Gulf States.

Rizgar Xoshnaw, a senior Kurdish writer based in Washington, a longtime contributing writer and columnist for iKurd.net.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.