The Kurds would really like to have their own autonomous state...

[kentuck]

we are told. The rich oil fields around Kirkuk could open up the pipeline to the Mediterranean. This would most benefit Israel. But Israel has no interest in this war, right? Even the NYTimes mentions the autonomy and the oilfields... http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/29/opinion/29wed1.html
So it is not inconceivable that the Kurds form their own state as a solution to the present dilemma in Iraq. But maybe I am wrong?

[madrchsod]

1. turkey will not allow a kurdish state

in iraq.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. that is very true.

that's why it hasn't happened.

[underpants]

3. Neither will Syria or Iran

The Kurds are the Palestinians without the PR campaign. I don't mean this to thrash either group-they are both seen by their ME "brothers" as second class humans (or feared). A "Palestinian homeland" is not a cause taken up for the pure reasons of wanting their self governance--all the other countries want someplace to dump all their Palestinians.

[rockymountaindem]

4. But the problem with that is

that an independent Kurdish state would create a world of trouble for Turkey, which is Israel's strongest and closest regional ally. So for Israel, that sword would cut both ways. Don't jump to the conclusion that Israel wants an independent Kurdish state.

[kentuck]

5. An up and coming superpower needs oil....

Israel doesn't really care about a Kurdish state but they do want the pipeline opened up - I think this is a lot of the backstage politics that is going on...just my opinion. In fact, the pipeline is already there, it is my understanding, but Syria had closed it off? Anybody with info on that?

[oblivious]

8. The Iraq-Israel pipeline will be reopened as soon as possible.

25/08/2003
U.S. checking possibility of pumping oil from northern Iraq to Haifa, via Jordan
By Amiram Cohen

The United States has asked Israel to check the possibility of pumping oil from Iraq to the oil refineries in Haifa. The request came in a telegram last week from a senior Pentagon official to a top Foreign Ministry official in Jerusalem.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=332835

16 April 2003
Oil from Iraq : An Israeli pipedream?
Israel stands to benefit greatly from the US led war on Iraq, primarily by getting rid of an implacable foe in President Saddam Hussein and the threat from the weapons of mass destruction he was alleged to possess. But it seems the Israelis have other things in mind.

An intriguing pointer to one potentially significant benefit was a report by Haaretz on 31 March that minister for national infrastructures Joseph Paritzky was considering the possibility of reopening the long-defunct oil pipeline from Mosul to the Mediterranean port of Haifa. With Israel lacking energy resources of its own and depending on highly expensive oil from Russia, reopening the pipeline would transform its economy.

...It is understood from diplomatic sources that the Bush administration has said it will not support lifting UN sanctions on Iraq unless Saddam's successors agree to supply Israel with oil.

All of this lends weight to the theory that Bush's war is part of a masterplan to reshape the Middle East to serve Israel's interests. Haaretz quoted Paritzky as saying that the pipeline project is economically justifiable because it would dramatically reduce Israel's energy bill.

http://www.janes.com/regional_news/africa_middle_east/news/fr/fr030416_1_n.shtml

Edit: More recent news from Haaretz (but not in the English edition, so can only find an indirect report by Al-Jazeera)

U.S. to push for Kirkuk-Haifa pipeline
6/15/2005 12:00:00 PM GMT

In a telegram sent by a senior Pentagon official to a top Israeli Foreign Ministry official, the United States asked Israel to check the possibility of pumping oil from Iraq to the oil refineries in Haifa.

...The new pipeline would take oil from the Kirkuk area, where some 40 percent of Iraqi oil is produced, and transport it via Mosul, and then across Jordan to Israel. The U.S. telegram included a request for a cost estimate for repairing the Mosul-Haifa pipeline that was in use prior to 1948. During the 1948 war the Iraqis stopped the flow of oil to Haifa and the pipeline fell into disrepair over the years.

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/conspiracy_theory/fullstory.asp?id=235

[kentuck]

9. Thanks for your links..

It's good to keep it all in perspective.

[hel]

6. That would be an invitation to more unstability in the region

With 20 million Kurds inside the borders and an almost totally Kurdish Southeast region where a civil war went on for decades, Turkey will do whatever is in their power to keep it from happening or destabilizing the new Kurdish government as rapidly as possible.

On a psychological note, Turks also think of Mosul and Kirkuk (aka 'oil money') as their own land by right, since Turkey had to concede both because of British and French taking advantage of newly founded and struggling Turkish Republic by inciting riots in the 1920s. The story is true, but the idea is... well, you can never judge to whom a land with many different ethnic groups calling it home rightfully belongs. Kurds are a majority, but not as large one as told.

[quaoar]

7. Kurdistan should be independent

The Kurds were promised their own country after WWI, but then the British fucked them and created Iraq. The Kurds have been fucked ever since.

Why should the Kurds be forced to stay as part of Iraq if they don't want to be? Just because we think it's for the best?

If we are really interested in establishing a stable democracy in the Middle East, Kurdistan is the place to do it. It is relatively ethnically homogenous and it has a history of self-governance since the end of the Gulf War.

We would do well to withdraw our troops from central Iraq and redeploy into Kurdistan. Our troops would be relatively our of harm;s way, they would be nearby in case Iran tried to move into the rest of Iraq. And as for Turkey, they would jump up and down and scream but they are not going to intervene in a country that is basing 100,000 U.S. troops.