The US contemplates partitioning Iraq
22 June 2015
During an exchange in the House Armed Services Committee last
Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced that the Obama
administration was prepared to accept the break-up of Iraq as a unified
national-state.
“What if a multi-sectarian Iraq turns out not be
possible?” Carter asked rhetorically. “That is an important part of our
strategy now on the ground. If the government can’t do what it’s
supposed to do, then we will still try to enable local ground forces, if
they’re willing to partner with us, to keep stability in Iraq—but there
will not be a single state of Iraq.”
Carter’s brazen statement
underscores, once again, the predatory and colonial character of decades
of US interventions in the Middle East—as well as the endless lies
utilized to justify them.
Just 10 months ago, the American people
were told by the Obama administration that US military operations were
resuming in Iraq in order to defend it against the Islamic State of Iraq
and Syria (ISIS), which was threatening its survival. As recently as
April, with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi standing beside him,
Obama declared at the White House that “United States’ prime interest,”
alongside defeating ISIS, was “to respect Iraqi sovereignty.”
A
few months later, the Obama administration has signalled that it is
indifferent to the country’s sovereignty and even its existence.
