The central Iraqi government wants the Kirkuk oil fields bacHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Admittedly, that’s how Hot Air put it, not the article below:

On Friday, the Kurds seized two major oil fields and said they would use some of the production for domestic purposes. The move has intensified a bitter dispute with Baghdad, and tensions with Western countries determined not to see Iraq fall apart.

But the central government’s weak hand, coupled with the pesh merga’s consolidation of their gains and the apparent popular support for the Kurds’ enlargement of their territory, will make it hard to roll back the changes.

…but it’s still true that the central government does want to resume control over the territory that the Kurds have, ah, expanded into; and it’s equally true that the idea that that’s going to happen is the funniest dang thing that I’ve read today.  Let me just establish, for the record …No.  Even if the country doesn’t fall apart, the Kurds will still see no reason why they should let Baghdad get back control of the Kirkuk oil fields, given that Baghdad will just resume mismanaging the money and the Kurds already have Turkish buyers lined up for that precious, precious crude. And as the WaPo article notes, the inhabitants in the area in question have a keen sense of priorities: Continue reading The central Iraqi government wants the Kirkuk oil fields bacHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

The Kurds have decided to, ah, ‘stabilize’ Kirkuk.

No doubt purely temporarily, until the situation resolves itself:

Iraqi Kurdish forces say they have taken full control of the northern oil city of Kirkuk as the army flees before an Islamist offensive nearby.

“The whole of Kirkuk has fallen into the hands of peshmerga,” Kurdish spokesman Jabbar Yawar told Reuters. “No Iraq army remains in Kirkuk now.”

Kurdish fighters are seen as a bulwark against Sunni Muslim insurgents.

:Murmuring: Tsk, tsk. Bad future reliable American client state! Bad! No biscuit! Continue reading The Kurds have decided to, ah, ‘stabilize’ Kirkuk.