Risk of post-ISIL chaos in Iraq casts new light on Canada’s support for Kurds
ERBIL, Iraq — The threat of political chaos looms over the imminent defeat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Mosul, fuelling fear of a dramatically different — and deadly — use for Canada’s military support for Kurdish peshmerga forces.
Much of the potential upheaval revolves around whether Iraq’s disparate Sunni and Shia populations can finally set aside their differences and come together in some sort of reconciliation.
But many are also watching to see whether the Kurds plan to demand independence from the rest of Iraq, as their leaders — whose arguments for separation echo Canada’s own sovereigntist movement — have promised.
The Kurds have already made it clear they are ready to fight for so-called “disputed territory” that the peshmerga have liberated from ISIL, but whose ownership is claimed by both Baghdad and Erbil.