Paul Bremer: Peshmerga most consistent ally of US
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Paul Bremer was the top US civilian in Iraq during the first year of Operation Iraqi Freedom—from 2003 to 2004. He headed the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and helped guide the transition to Iraqi rule, before he departed Baghdad that summer.
Bremer spoke to Kurdistan24 on Friday and said that the Peshmerga should be better supplied. “I would certainly support reasonable efforts for the Peshmerga to be given more equipment, particularly heavy lift transportation equipment, and whatever other military equipment that is necessary to finish this war,” he said.
“The Peshmerga, from the time of the first Gulf War,” he explained, “through the present, have been the most consistent and capable allies to American interests in Iraq.”
Bremer’s statements about the contribution of the Peshmerga to US security, as well as their need for better equipment, are all the more significant, given his previous post.
In addition, as head of the CPA, Bremer adhered to a “one-Iraq” policy. He was more oriented toward Baghdad than Erbil, and occasionally, even clashed with the Kurdish leadership.
Bremer still seems to hold to a “one-Iraq” stance, although, perhaps, the strength of his view has been tempered by the unhappy US experience with Iraq over the past fourteen years.
“I still believe that all Iraqi people would be better off, if Iraq is one country,” he told Kurdistan24, adding, “But it’s a question for the Iraqi people to decide themselves.”
Looking forward to the problem of establishing political stability following the defeat of Islamic State (IS), Bremer called on Baghdad to reach out to Iraq’s non-Shiite populations: the Kurds and Sunni Arabs.
“What happens after [IS] is defeated in Mosul is going to be a national questions for all Iraqis,” he said. Bremer believes that Baghdad should make a “big effort” with Kurdish leaders and “engage the Sunni Arabs,” whom, he says, will be particularly interested “in getting reengaged in Iraqi political life.”
Yet the former CPA head seemed uncertain that Iraq would really make that effort. He described it as “the test for the government in Baghdad,” acknowledging, “there are a lot of questions about how all of this will work.”
From 1968 until 1989, Bremer was a Foreign Service Officer in the State Department and rose to become US ambassador to the Netherlands and then Ambassador-at-Large for Counterterrorism, before retiring from government and entering the private sector.
Until 2000, Bremer was Managing Director at Kissinger Associates, the consulting firm of former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. Bremer knew Kissinger from the 1970s, when he had been Kissinger’s Special Assistant at the State Department from 1973 through 1976.
It was in that period that Kissinger betrayed the Kurds, acquiescing in the March 1975 deal between the Shah of Iran and Saddam Hussein and cutting off America’s covert aid to Kurdish leader, Mullah Mustafa Barzani. Subsequently, Kissinger lamely told a congressional committee investigating CIA activities, “Covert action should not be confused with missionary work.”
Real change often comes slowly. It is, indeed, an indication of just how very much has changed that the man who was Kissinger’s Special Assistant then should now be calling for the Peshmerga to receive better supplies and equipment.
(Rahim Rashidi conducted the interview in Washington, DC)