Rep. Mike Gallagher: US should promote Erbil-Baghdad talks

WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) – Congressman Mike Gallagher, a Republican from Wisconsin, told Kurdistan 24, “The Kurdish people have overwhelmingly spoken” in their independence referendum.

He noted—as does the Kurdish leadership—that a referendum is different from a declaration of independence, and he advised the Trump administration that it “should prevent both sides from escalating their rhetoric.”

Gallagher suggested that the US now needed to“bring people to the table and figure out how [to] make this work going forward.”

The Congressman joins former US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, as well as John Hannah, formerly National Security Adviser to Vice-President Dick Cheney, in urging the US to assume a mediating role between Erbil and Baghdad and work more actively to reduce tensions.

Gallagher had high praise for the Kurds, explaining that he had visited Kurdistan a few years ago and was “impressed by the [Kurds’] level of commitment to their fight against [the Islamic State] and the shared values we both have.”

The US “would be wise to invest heavily in making sure that the Kurds are a strong and reliable ally,” he affirmed. “The Kurds have a chance to really emerge—they already are in some sense—as an island of stability in a very chaotic region.”

Gallagher knows whereof he speaks. He served two tours of duty as a Marine Corps officer in Anbar province working on Gen. David Petraeus’ CENTCOM Assessment Team. Reflecting his strong background in national security issues, the first-term Congressman sits on the House Armed Services Committee, as well as its Homeland Security Committee.

He also has a very impressive academic background, with a B.A. from Princeton University and a Ph.D. from Georgetown University.

Gallagher stressed the importance of “making sure that the Turks don’t overreact” to the referendum and doing the same in regard to Iran, “even for the government in Baghdad.”

“I think that the United States can play a calming role,” he said.

Michael Pregent, an Iraq scholar at the Hudson Institute, recently told Kurdistan 24 that a number of veterans of the war in Iraq are now in Congress. “Most of them,” Pregent said, “are pro-Kurdistan.”

Clearly, Gallagher is among them.

“I think about how we want the region to look 20 years from now,” Gallagher said, as he concluded his discussion with Kurdistan 24.

“As I think about that, I see a role for a strong Kurdistan.”

Editing by G.H. Renaud