Irak, Medio Oriente y Asia

De Kurdos y Madrid

Autor: William Safire

Fecha: 22/10/2003

Traductor: Analí T.B., especial para P.I.

Fuente: New York Times

Of Kurds and Madrid
October 22, 2003
By WILLIAM SAFIRE

WASHINGTON - My old buddies the Kurds, a long-mistreated
people we freed from Saddam, are now looking a gift horse
in the mouth. I hope somebody explains that American
expression about shortsighted suspicion to a key leader,
Massoud Barzani.

The U.S.-British coalition can use a fresh force of
experienced troops to patrol Iraq's porous border with
Syria and help us cause die-hard terrorists to die hard.
Turkey's leaders, eager to re-establish warm relations with
Washington and to take part in creating a nearby democratic
trading partner, offered a division of well-trained troops.


This would do much to Muslimize and localize the war on
Saddam's last-ditch fighters. Turkey's generous offer -
duration, one year - would send a message to the world:
pitch in and help now, while Iraq is not yet able to police
and rebuild itself.

The overwhelming vote in Turkey's Parliament added momentum
to the effort by the U.S. and Britain in the Security
Council to get U.N. backing last week for continued firm
coalition control of helping Iraqis build a democratic,
free-enterprise government.

That unanimous U.N. vote surprised doubters everywhere. Its
genesis, I suspect, was at the Bush-Putin meeting two weeks
ago in Camp David. Bush lavished fulsome praise on Russia's
semi-dictator for his supposed vision of freedom and the
rule of law; Vladimir Putin, after gladly joining Bush in
sinking the Kyoto global warming treaty, agreed not only to
vote our way in the U.N. but also to broker a compromise
that would induce France and Germany not just to abstain,
but to grudgingly support our occupation.

Just as Turkey delivered on troops, so did Putin on votes.
China, as usual, wanted to be part of the majority it could
see forming. But France, meekly followed by Germany, wanted
an immediate, sovereign provisional government in Iraq,
stripping the U.S. of control. When we said no, Putin
passed along words to save Jacques Chirac's face: that the
interim administration we appointed would "embody the
sovereignty" of Iraq "without prejudice to its further
evolution" - thereby kicking the can of our control well
into next year.

The bandwagon that started in Camp David and gained speed
in Ankara rolled through Damascus. Rather than be isolated,
Syria - always nervous about the Turks and suddenly worried
about the Israelis - made our U.N. resolution unanimous.

That set the stage for this week's Madrid donors'
conference. With the French, Germans and Russians refusing
to ante up a plug dinar, and with the E.U. offering
peanuts, we've been low-balling estimates of aid. But I
suspect it will get into the double-digits of billions,
especially since contributors can steer contracts to their
own nationals.

But here come Iraqi Arabs, using the Kurdish leader Barzani
as their wedge to evoke faded memories of the Ottoman
Empire and to look the Turkish gift horse in the mouth.

Neighbors stay out, say members of the Governing Council,
showing premature independence to curry voters' favor.
Understandably, Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, responds: unless invited by Iraqis, Turks will not
come.

Our State Department's man in Baghdad, Paul Bremer, seems
to be worried about appearing overbearing. He already erred
in approving an oil-for-electricity swap with Syria, the
main source of terror in the Sunni triangle, and may fail
to see the puissance of a force of Turks on the Iraq-Syrian
border. Bremer should tell recalcitrant Kurds that they are
again being used as pawns in an Arab power play, and that
they should welcome a guaranteed temporary Turkish presence
in non-Kurdish areas of Iraq.

Kurdish leaders reached by cellphone are well aware of the
danger of letting their traditional suspicion of Turks
poison their well with Americans.

Says one, thinking short-term: "Our pesh merga cannot
police the Sunni triangle. If you could work out a way to
transport and supply the Turks by ship, without passing
through Kurdish lands. . . ." Another, thinking ahead about
an alliance with the superpower, goes to the heart of the
matter: "If it takes Turkish troops to save American lives,
we Kurds should be for it."