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.

Somebody please tell me that we’re *not* giving guns to groups shooting at Kurds.

Because that would not be smart. Pejman Yousefzadeh:

This story informs us that “the CIA has been delivering light machine guns and other small arms to Syrian rebels for several weeks, following President Barack Obama’s decision to arm the rebels.” It also informs us that “in the northeastern province of Hassakeh, clashes pitting Kurdish fighters against members of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in the past two days killed 13 Kurdish gunmen and 35 militants.” So, armed rebel groups are fighting other armed rebel groups, some of which are Islamic fundamentalist militants related to al Qaeda. Query: How do we know that the weapons that we are providing to “Syrian rebels” don’t fall into the hands of the wrong kind of “rebels”?

Short answer: we don’t. We don’t even know that the Obama administration has the necessary mother-wit to even ask the right questions.  Which means that we could very well be arming the people who are shooting at affiliates of one of our most reliable client groups.  Which, again, is not smart.

I mean, the seriously, Kurds are enthusiastic when it comes to accommodating Uncle Sugar; can we not endanger that, please?

Moe Lane