Crisis in Iraqi Kurdistan

While the thievery of the Masrour Barzani case is unfolding and getting only more vulgar by day, some will refer to this with the term “corruption”. The term corruption however, depoliticizes the reality that Iraq is under the yoke of capitalism militarily coerced by the USA.

The Kurdish Region (KRI) is at the heart of the neoliberal project in Iraq. The KRI has been an area where exploitation of labor, cheap natural resources, the settlement of large foreign companies, and NGOs is facilitated through cheap Kurdish identity politics.

This Kurdish nationalism hides class differences and imperial exploitation. The KRI is the largest oil-supplier to Israel and hosts one of USA’s largest military bases in Iraq. The slogan free Kurdistan seems to only signal a free Kurdish bourgeoisie, free to accumulate wealth through its comprador-status to the USA. This freedom is not for ordinary Kurds, nor is it a freedom that the Kurdish elite are willing to share with other ordinary Iraqis.