The age of horrorism

[andyfox]

The Kurds already have their own de facto independence. One of the first acts the Kurdistan National Assembly adopted after convening in June 2005 was to bar the Iraqi military from entering Kudristan without the assembly's approval. The permanent Iraqi constitution adopted in October 2005 allows Kursdistan to have its own military. The Kurdistan constitution is superior to the federal constituion within Kurdistan and prevails when there is a conflict with federal law.

Kurdistan owns and manages it land and water. The Kurdistan Regional Government, not Baghdad, determines the legal regime for the development of new oil fields, decides where drilling takes place, and makes investment decisions. Baghdad has no power to impose taxes on Kurdistan unless Kurdistan agrees to be taxed.

In January 2004 a group of Kurds asked for signatures for a referendum on Kurdistan de jure independence. In three weeks, they collected 1,700,000 signatures; Kurdistan's adult population is about 2,300,000. When the January 2005 federal elections took place, there were referendum booths just outside, or actually inside, every polling place in Kurdistan. 2,000,000 Kurds voted in the referendum and 98 percent chose independence.