The
currently stateless Kurds sit astride the Iraq-Syria border on land
blessed/cursed with oil, other resources, and geopolitical
significance. Is it any wonder that mega-corporations and their
client states are looking to use the Kurds, stoke conflict, and
exploit the situation?
by
Whitney Webb
Part
2 - The geopolitical and economic motives for a partitioned Iraq
The
corporatist, neoconservative dream of partitioning Iraq has been
around for well over a decade, first materializing a year before the
U.S.’ ill-fated 2003 invasion of that nation. The plan, drafted by
former Vice President Dick Cheney and Deputy Secretary of Defense
Paul Wolfowitz, contemplated the division of Iraq into three
autonomous, sectarian “statelets” for Iraqi Muslim Sunnis, Muslim
Shi’as, and ethnic Kurds, who are also predominantly Muslim. This
partition, it was believed, would allow the U.S. and its regional
allies to more easily dominate Iraq and its important fossil fuel
resources, along with conferring other “strategic advantages.”
As
U.S.-based private intelligence firm Stratfor noted in 2002, the
invasion and destruction of Iraq would pave the way for partition and
thus greater U.S. control over Iraq and the entire Middle East:
After
eliminating Iraq as a sovereign state, there would be no fear that
one day an anti-American government would come to power in Baghdad,
as the capital would be in Amman [Jordan].
Current
and potential U.S. geopolitical foes Iran […] and Syria would be
isolated from each other, with big chunks of land between them under
control of the pro-U.S. forces.
Equally
important, Washington would be able to justify its long-term and
heavy military presence in the region as necessary for the defense of
a young new state asking for U.S. protection – and to secure the
stability of oil markets and supplies.
That, in
turn, would help the United States gain direct control of Iraqi oil
and replace Saudi oil in case of conflict with Riyadh.
Source,
links:
http://www.mintpressnews.com/geopolitics-corporate-profits-push-iraq-syria-towards-partition/230830/
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