Kurdish soldiers stand at the gate of an oil pumping station in western Kirkuk province in Iraq, on March 2, 2017. The outflow of oil from Iraq's Kirkuk oil field stopped Thursday after Kurdish forces entered a Baghdad government-owned pumping station near the city of Kirkuk and prevented workers from pumping oil, an Iraqi oil official told Xinhua. Xinhua/SIPA USA/PA Images. All rights reserved.The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is planning for a referendum to separate from Iraq later this year. This could easily lead to further ruin for ordinary people.
As both sides to the dispute push forward with increasing amounts of hubris, policy makers and observers should reflect on both the causes and the risks of the current trajectory.
As is often the case in Iraq, this particular crisis could easily have been avoided if only the country’s political class had been capable of being slightly more mature. Instead, both sides suffer from a tendency to overreach and unhealthily rely on external advisors.
