Must the War Go On? Let's Talk About Iraq and the Kurds

War on the Rocks

News, Politics

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2017

⏱️ 56 minutes

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Summary

The Kurds of Northern Iraq held an independence referendum, Iraqi federal forces seized Kirkuk, and the world wondered if we were on the precipice of another round of what could be described as one long-running Iraqi civil war involving the state, jihadists, tribes, sectarian militias, various Kurdish factions, and - of course - a bevy of outside powers.

We haven't seen a descent into a new round of violence, at least yet. But what does the future hold for Iraq? Can the Kurds and Baghdad come to some sort of agreement? What do we mean when we say "the Kurds" anyway? What does this mean for Iraq and Iraqi nationalism now that the war to take back territory from the self-proclaimed Islamic State is winding its way to an end? What about the Shia militias raised for that fight? What place do they now hold in Iraq?

To help him figure out these questions and more, Ryan Evans invited Rasha al-Aqeedi, Denise Natali, and Doug Ollivant on the show. And of course, there was whisk(e)y.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to War on the Rocks, a podcast on strategy, defense, and foreign affairs.
0:13.8	My name is Ryan Evans, I'm the editor-in-Chief of War in the Rocks.
0:17.0	In this episode, I spoke with Denise Nautale, Rasha Al-Aqidi, and Doug Olavant about what's going on in Iraq,
0:22.1	from the fight against the Islamic State,
0:23.8	to the confrontation between the Kurds and Baghdad and beyond.
0:27.1	Denise is the director of the Center for Strategic Research at the Institute for National Strategic
0:31.5	Studies at the National Defense University, where she's also a distinguished research fellow.
0:36.0	Her opinions, of course, are her own and not those of her center, NDU, or the Department of Defense.
0:41.0	Rasha is a researcher at Al-M-Sbar Studies and Research Center in Dubai.
0:44.4	She's also a fellow at GW's Project on Extremism and a native of Mosul.
0:48.2	This was her first time on the War on the War on the Rocks podcast.
0:50.7	Doug Olivant of course is well known to listeners of the
0:53.6	War on the rocks podcast. He's an ASU future of war senior fellow at New
0:56.6	America. He's also managing partner and the senior vice president of Manted
1:00.3	International LLC a global strategic consulting firm with offices in Washington, Lebanon,
1:05.1	and Iraq.
1:06.1	Happy listening. What just happened in Kirkuk? Well, apparently the Iraqi forces decided to take over Kirkukuk.
1:22.0	After Musukukuk... the Iraqi forces decided to take over Kirkuk after Masaud Barzani kind of used the
1:26.7	whole ISIS thing to extend or expand the k-r-G territory and it appeared to be. I think for those who weren't watching close enough but for those who those of us who were watching the referendum it was it was pretty obvious that something like this would happen the referendum put the Prime Minister in way too much
1:44.6	pressure. Abadi had to act and this appeared to be the only way for him to be in that kind of
1:52.0	strong position.
1:53.2	Doug, how did it unfold militarily on the ground?
	...

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