U.S. Should Stop Funding Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga militias
Massoud Barzani (R) with his son Mansour Barzani and KDP party Zerevani. Peshmerga militias, Iraqi Kurdistan, 2016. Photo: Peshmerga/KRG/FB
Michael Rubin | 19fortyfive.com
Almost a year ago, President Joe Biden signed the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act that included $260 million for the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga. Two months ago, the White House signaled its intention to continue its financial support for the Kurdish militia. This is par for the course.
While the revival of the Islamic State is a real threat, throwing money at the Peshmerga now does more harm than good. In the history of funding the Iraqi Kurdish militias, investment has seldom met the promise. The Islamic State seized Jebel Sinjar and enslaved the Yazidis living there because the Peshmerga abandoned their posts and fled. As the Islamic State marched on Erbil, many Peshmerga and top lieutenants to Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani rushed to Erbil airport to escape on the last flights out of the Kurdish capital. To date, the Kurdish government refuses to release the manifests of passengers because of the political embarrassment such cowardice would expose. In juxtaposition to Barzani’s actions, the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and, subsequently, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stood and fought; they represented a good investment for security.
Barzani’s Kurdish KDP Peshmerga fighters flee from the Yazidi Sinjar area in northwest Iraq just before ISIS attacks on the Yazidis, on Aug 3, 2014. Photo: Screenshot/Ronahi TV
Unfortunately, the initial retreat of the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga in the face of the fight was not the only time when the Peshmerga refused to live up to their reputation borne from the fight against late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. At the height of the fight against the Islamic State, for example, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani warehoused the equipment the Pentagon provided and used it only as a show of force against his political opponents. This was a major reason why Iraqi Shi’ite militias took the lead against the Islamic State and liberated nearly every Iraqi city that had fallen. At the same time, the Kurdish Peshmerga guarded the lines around Kirkuk and Mosul.
Following the transfer of power from Massoud to his eldest son Masrour, the situation worsens. It is ironic that Masrour arrests and charges journalists with treason for meeting with the American consul-general in Erbil even as he demands the United States subsidize the Peshmerga. Over the past year, as the Kurds have locked in American funding, the politicization of the Peshmerga has increased.
Gone is the two-decade-long but never-concluding discussion of unifying the Peshmerga to end their current division between the leaders of the two largest political parties. Masrour and his younger brother Waysi treat the Peshmerga as personal enforcers. They have become a new generation’s Uday and Qusay and are implementing a reign of terror.
PUK party Peshmerga commander Sheikh Jaafar 2018. Photo: FB
It is doubtful that the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) will now even form a joint administration for the Kurdistan Regional Government. Kurdish journalist Renwar Najm has highlighted some astounding developments. Regional Vice President Sheikh Jaafar Sheikh Mustafa, for example, had declared the relationship between the two parties to be at its “worst since the civil war” of 1994-1997 when intra-Kurdish fighting killed more than 3,000. In recent days, an armed group answering to Azhi Amin, a former member of an Al Qaeda affiliate who now works for Masrour and Waysi, surrounded the house of deputy prime minister and PUK member Qubad Talabani. Qubad has long done Masrour’s bidding, but Massoud’s eldest son no longer wants to share power outside his immediate family let alone tolerate the illusion of plurality.
Iraqi Kurdistan PM Masrour Barzani (R) shakes hands with his Deputy Qubad Talabani, 2021. Photo: AFP
What occurs now in Iraqi Kurdistan with regard to American funding of the Peshmerga has a parallel to what occurred in Somalia between 2018 and 2021. At the time, U.S. Ambassador Donald Yamamoto lavishly coordinated the funding of Somalia’s armed forces in the name of fighting the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabab. Then-Somali President Mohamed Farmajo, however, diverted the funding and used the armed forces as a personal militia to attack his rivals rather than fight terrorists.
Lobbyists may have assured Congress and the State Department that money meant security. Still, the opposite was true: The more money given to corrupt leadership, the worse the security situation became. Only with Farmajo’s ouster did the Somali armed forces direct themselves to their core purpose and fight al-Shabab.
It is now time for some tough love on the Peshmerga. Congress if not the White House should remind Masrour and Waysi that American assistance to the tune of more than a quarter-billion dollars is no entitlement. Rather than advance the fight against the Islamic State, such funding today greases instability and is a death blow to Kurds’ hope for democracy. It is time to stop funding the Peshmerga.
Michael Rubin is a former Pentagon official whose major research areas are the Middle East, Turkey, Iran and diplomacy. He is author of “Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes” (Encounter, 2014). He is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute AEI. His major research area is the Middle East, with special focus on Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Kurdish society. Read more by Michael Rubin.
The article first published at 19fortyfive.com
Copyright © 2022, respective author or news agency, 19fortyfive.com
Clan-based KDP party reelects Massoud Barzani as president at the 14th KDP congress
Massoud Barzani (C) with his nephew Nechirvan Barzani (L) and son Masrour Barzani (R) at the 14th KDP party congress, Duhok, Iraqi Kurdistan, November 3, 2022. Photo: K24
DUHOK, Iraqi Kurdistan region,— Massoud Barzani was re-elected president of the clan-based Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on Thursday as the winner is already known to public, with Iraqi Kurdistan region president Nechirvan Barzani re-appointed as his first deputy and prime minister Masrour Barzani elected as his second deputy.
The 14th KDP congress began on Thursday in Duhok city and is scheduled to last two days. The KDP has not held a congress since December 2010, the longest period the party has ever gone without holding one.
“KDP’s congress is mainly for appointing Masrour vice-president along with Nechirvan. Masrour has further consolidated power within the party and the KRI. The KDP had a non-Barzani Vice President till last 2014, and then Nechirvan took the position and now Masrour was added.” senior political analyst Kamal Chomani said in a tweet.
“KDP also elects 51 Leadership Council members and later the political bureau. Masrour Barzani will have the majority of the Leadership Council members. Nechirvan will have less than 15 out of 51. Nechirvan has been squeezed by Masrour, but he can’t do much as Massoud is still alive.” Chomani added.
The KDP is the largest party in Iraqi Kurdistan, with 45 seats in parliament and top government roles such as president, prime minister, and deputy parliament speaker.
In August 2022, 600,000 KDP members selected 800 members to participate in the 14th KDP Congress.
The KDP was founded in Iranian Kurdistan on August 16, 1946, by the late Mustafa Barzani, the father Massoud Barzani.
“It is a joke to meet and reelect the same person without challengers. Mustafa Barzani used the same technique during Kurdish war with Iraq. No one dear to challenge him for the leadership, so what is the congress for anyway?”, “KDP congresses are not different from Saddam Hussein Ba’ath congress” senior political analyst Hamma Mirwaisi said in 2010.
“The Barzani clan established political party to serve the family. They are calling it Kurdistan Democratic Party without understanding the word democrat. The Talabanis have similar political party of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan PUK to serve their own family. It is a joke to meet and reelect the same person without challengers. Mustafa Barzani used the same technique during Kurdish war with Iraq. No one dear to challenge him for the leadership, so what is the congress for anyway?”, “KDP congress is not different from Saddam Hussein Ba’ath congress” senior political analyst Hamma Mirwaisi said in 2010.
“The leadership in Barzani family is goes from father to son not to nephew. Nechirvan Barzani knows that more than others.” Mirwaisi added.
For decades, the KDP and PUK have lorded over the region. The clan is routinely accused of corruption.
The Barzani clan, known as the Kurdish oligarchs, have been routinely accused by critics and observers of neptunism and amassing huge wealth from oil business for the family instead of serving the population.
Massoud Barzani, remains the most powerful leader in the shadow according to analysts. Massoud’s son Masrour is the Kurdistan region’s prime minister and his nephew Nechirvan Barzani is the president of Kurdistan.
Iraqi Kurdistan is not a unified region, it is divided politically and geographically, known as the Yellow and Green zone, between the KDP led by Massoud Barzani and PUK led by the Talabani’s family. Erbil and Duhok governorates are controlled by the Barzanis and Sulaimani by the Talabanis.
Read more about The Monarchy of Iraqi Kurdistan
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