A PEOPLE THAT THINKS THEMSELVES A NATION IS ONE:

Kurdistan Would Welcome U.S. Troops Without Pact (Congressional Quarterly, 10/31/08)

The president of Iraqi Kurdistan said Friday that his semi-autonomous region would welcome U.S. troops if Iraq and the United States cannot finalize an agreement governing U.S. troops in Iraq after 2008.

“If the United States requests, I am confident the Kurdish regional parliament and people of the Kurdistan region . . . would welcome that,” Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Barzani said he hopes that the two countries do conclude a status of forces agreement to govern the future U.S. troop presence beyond the Dec. 31 expiration of a U.N. mandate. And despite expressing doubts about whether the Iraqi parliament will approve the draft accord, Barzani gave it a strong endorsement.

“This agreement is better than any other alternative available,” he said through a translator, saying its approval by Iraqis was still possible.

While the practical implications of basing U.S. troops in Kurdistan are not clear, the mere discussion of it could strengthen perceptions of Kurdish autonomy.

There's plenty of time to decide whether there will be a Sunnistan in Iraq, but there won't be a Kurdistan.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 31, 2008 2:20 PM