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Article: THE WILD CARD IN A POST-SADDAM IRAQ THEY'VE BEEN GASSED BY SADDAM HUSSEIN AND BETRAYED BY THE UNITED STATES. BUT TODAY, THE KURDS HAVE ECONOMIC PROSPERITY AND REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT IN NORTHERN IRAQ - AND THEY INTEND TO KEEP IT.
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- December 15, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2002 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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In Zawita, Iraq, an army is preparing for an American invasion.
Shouldering shiny new AK-47s, camouflage-clad recruits march smartly
around a parade ground. Nearby flies the tricolor flag with sun
emblem of the land they are pledged to defend. As the recruits pass
the reviewing stand, they shout out its name: Kurdistan.
Kurdistan is the wild card in any US plans for Iraq. Protected by
American F-16s since a failed uprising at the end of the Gulf War,
the Kurds today govern a Vermont-sized territory inside Iraq,
stretching along Iraq's northern border with Turkey, from Syria to
Iran. With five airfields, an extensive internal road system, and
some territory only 100 miles from Baghdad, ...