Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki picked a fight with the Kurds last week by accusing them of harboring terrorists in their autonomous region. This emboldened the Kurds, who reacted by withdrawing their representatives from the national government and then seizing two major oilfields in the north.
I obviously do not understand the day-to-day pressures facing Maliki but it’s hard to fathom why he would deliberately alienate the most effective fighting force in the country at a time when Sunni extremists are overrunning Western Iraq and pressing on towards the capital.
It seems to me like the wiser choice would have been to be solicitous of Kurdish assistance in defending national assets and beating back the folks who want to destroy Shiites shrines and establish a caliphate.
After all, while most of the Kurds are Sunnis, I don’t think they want to see Iraq taken over by Sunni Arab extremists who they may then have to fight.
Perhaps Maliki doesn’t want to resign, but anyone who wants to see Iraq survive as a country should be working for his ouster. It may already be too late.
