Guest Post- Genossin Sophie: Iraq: a Savvy Solution

Iraq has been a painful lesson in the costs of cultural and military imperialism.  Yet what does Congress propose to do against the Islamic State, a group of paramilitary fighters? send in American troops again.  We've been around this circus.  However, while Aljazeera reports that military analysts think there is no solution except to send in troops I beg to differ.

Arm the Kurds.  It is a simple solution to the problem.  The Kurds have proven themselves both resistant to the influence of the Islamic State, and able to fight against it.  They have a well-trained if underequipped militia ready to go.

Now why would a Kurdish Iraqi state be in our interest? because the Kurds cannot simply bully the other groups in Iraq around, if they could they would already be doing so, but are strong enough to force negotiations between the groups and keep them peaceful. furthermore they are a neutral party which while also Muslim is neither Sunni nor Shiite, therefore no one could accuse them of favoring one group or the other (one of many accusations leveled at Premier al-Maliki and not without substantial evidence).  It would also kill two birds with one stone: silencing the Kurdish resistance in Turkey and making Erdogan look like a fool while also setting up a stable Iraqi state.  

Further, a stable Iraqi state would make the conflict in Afghanistan easier to contain: since terrorist organizations would have a hard time getting help from Saudi Arabia and Syria for their causes.  Finally a secular Iraqi state (which is what the Kurds want) will provide a nice ally in dealings with Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran and other Islamicist nations and will weaken the influence of terrorist groups since they rely on the fact that secular states in the Middle East often fail to drum up support. It might also convince Pakistan of the merits of cooperating with the US military if we showed that we had learned our lessons from Iraq.  Further, this action would show the world that the United States is more than simply an imperialist machine: that we have the ability to think outside the box and make a decision to helps everyone rather than just trying to benefit ourselves. 

Sure, it may be slightly harder to negotiate oil contracts, but that's a small price to pay for finally bringing our military home, especially since these conflicts make the price of oil go all jack-in-the-box. Being smart and culturally savvy could not only save Iraq from another century of conflict: it could also save our economy by eliminating the need to constantly pay money to other countries to finance our military actions there (which means less money for us Americans to spend on ourselves) and exerting a stabilizing influence on the price of an important resource, also meaning less need for fracking and other destructive practices here at home (which will likely end up costing more than they save). 

Why is this in the interest of socialists? because the Kurds are a long oppressed people and because of a cultural quirk.  They view women as equal and have for a long time.  Women fight alongside men in their militias, and men engage in childcare as often as women.  They are muslim, but not heavily religious, while also not being very westernized. Furthermore, once the militants are dead they have little incentive to continue fighting and lots of incentive to make a democratic government work.  They also have an interest in making that government secular: therefore enabling leftist parties to gain support from ethnic and religious minorities. When a balance of leftist and rightist parties exists in Iraq it will be much harder either for a Saddam Hussein type strongman or an IS type paramilitary group to gain any sort of control.  The Islamicist parties will not go away until their grievances are addressed: and the Middle East generally will have to sort out how to do this in their own way, but when their influence is lessened everyone will be happier. 

In Solidarität

Genossin Sophie