Is the US a Neo-Colonial Power in Iraq?

Yes. At least it sure looks like it. Those who deny it ought to take a close look at what’s going on in northern Iraq. Turkey next door wants to invade Iraq. For a limited purpose, they say. The current ‘government’ of Iraq is opposed to this, but is powerless to do anything about it, except mouth opposition to Turkey. As it stands now, the Iraqis can do nothing against Turkey, without US approval.

So exactly how ‘sovereign’ is the current Iraqi government? The answer is, that it isn’t sovereign at all. Not by any stretch of the imagination. The current Iraqi ‘government is an entity that exists on paper and was and is essentially a product created by the US, and for the US.

An independent sovereign government would be able to confront invaders, kick them out and keep them out. The Iraqis can’t do this. The Turks are going to do what they want in northern Iraq and the Iraqis have no power to do anything about it. Turkey’s parliament has given its military permission to go into Iraq in order to flush out Kurdish separatists, (sometimes called the PKK) in northern Iraq. As it stands now , there are 100,000 Turkish soldiers stationed at the border between northern Iraq and Turkey.

The Turks are worried. Turkey has a large Kurdish minority and the Turks are worried that the PKK might attempt to bring about a Kurdish independent state in Turkey. The Turks, aren’t having any.

Worse, Turkish soldiers have been killed by PKK raiders. Right now the Turks are retaliating by firing artillery shells into Iraq and conducted limited border crossings.

For it’s part, the US hasn’t bothered to intervene against the Turks. And it won’t. The US controls Iraq’s borders and has decided to let the Turks do what they want. Which is precisely what you would expect a colonial power to do in this kind of situation. Some news reports suggest that the US is giving intelligence information to the Turks to enable them to carry out missions in Iraq.

From the US POV, there’s good reason to support Turkey. Turkey is a regional supply hub for the US military. Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey near the Mediterranean sea is part of the supply lines crucial to US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. A lot of road traffic passes between Turkey and Iraq.

If the US controls Iraq’s borders and its military is the only effective country-wide power in Iraq, then what is the US , but neo-colonial power?

All this means that the longer the US stays in Iraq, the greater the perception will be that the US is in Iraq for its own purposes, not for the benefit of Iraq or the Iraqi people.

Posted 1:00 PM