Aug 4 2012

Specter of war looms in Iraq

By Fatih Abdulsalam

Azzaman, August 4, 2012

Is there a mediating power capable of solving the current crisis between Baghdad and the Kurdish region before it transforms into full-scale war?

Constitutionally, the sides can get no recourse. The constitution has been embalmed and rendered powerless after years of violations that hard turned it into corpse.

It seems that most Iraqi officials have disdained the constitution they drafted themselves, with foreign help.

Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki led a campaign to mend the constitution in an effort to breathe life into it. But this bid was shelved due to the mixing up of political cards in a country that has been rocked, particularly in the past yea,r by the laundering of political dirt of various factions.

In the absence of a constitution, the parties will inevitably have to turn to foreign powers to settle their differences.

Reports speak of deployment of forces from both sides along disputed areas namely in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, and the cities of Mosul and Diyala. A situation like this needs just a spark to explode and take Iraq back to square number one.

If current hostilities are not solved we are certain to see a lot of polarization, with each party working hard to garner moral and material support from within or outside the country.

The Iraqi government may not be that concerned as Iraq, particularly the central and southern parts of it, are still run-down areas and more destruction, the government probably thinks, will make no difference.

But it is another story for the Kurdish region where a relative degree of modernity has taken shape. The Kurds might be more concerned than the government for their future as many of them do not want to see a new war destroying what they have built.

Conditions as they are right now move, albeit not at a dizzy pace, towards destroying the remaining bridges between the center in Baghdad and the Kurdish region.

If things get out of control, yet another black page and black period is to descend on Iraq.

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