Chapter 24: Peace in Our Times

Coming to an agreement with Talabani was the easy part. The tough part was convincing all Kurdish leaders to come on board. Unfortunately, across most of the world ideals of fighting till the last breath are vaunted and looking out for human lives is seen as cowardice. Just look at what happened to poor old Napolean III, an incredibly brave and compassionate ruler derided for being a coward when he allowed countless families to get their fathers, husbands and sons back.

Within a few days of the Talabani and I verbally agreeing on the terms of the ceasefire we got reports that fighting had broken out inside Erbil between the PUK and the KDP. I didn't hear from Talabani during this period and after some waffling I gave into the advice of my war council and ordered our Army to advance rapidly. The aim was to use the infighting to make rapid inroads and tighten the circle around Erbil further.

It was a whitewash, we took hill after hill. Our squads even encountered firefights between the different Kurdish factions at times and engaged the yellow patched KDP while ordering the green patched PUK to surrender their arms as per the Agreement.

On 25th Septmber Talabani called when I happened to be sitting with my war council.

"Mr. Talabani I worried that you had been killed."

He sounded exhausted, "Sir I nearly was. So many times."

"Well I'm glad to hear that you've lived to fight another day. Please tell me what the status is."

"Sir...we need your help. We, the PUK, control most of the city but the KDP fighters have managed to encircle us. We're hemmed in and they have the only supply line remaining into Iran."

My war council began furiously discussing this before I held up a hand to silence them. "Mr. Talabani how can we help?"

"Sir air support would be most welcome."

"Air support? I'm not sure how you mean Mr. Talabani. We havent bombarded civilian centers throughout this insurrection. I don't intend to start now."

He hissed in frustration. "The only other thing I can think of is if the Iraqi Army could break the siege or at least create an opening for the PUK fighters to break out of the encirclement."

"Hmmm," that could work I said thinking fast. Faoud was nodding furiously and giving me the thumbs up sign. "But our troops are still far away from Erbil and I dont want them to rush forward in case our own supply lines get stretched."

"I can give you the locations where our fighters had set up around the region," he said finally in a defeated tone. "But please come urgently. The KDP is becoming desperate. They could hurt civilians wantonly to beat us."

"You give us a clean path to Erbil and we'll be there before first light on the fifth day," I replied firmly.

(Break)

In the end we reached Erbil in two days flat. We had most of the city surrounded and were in control of most of the Kurdistan region except for a sliver that extended East into Iran.

Breaking the outer circle of KDP line was extremely easy. Our troops literally picked the fighters off from a distance. The panicking KDP ran helter skelter into Erbil proper where they were overwhelmed by the much more numerous PUK fighters.

And so my Army camped outside Erbil as we waited for the next step.

Talabanis call came two days after we had reached Erbil. "Sir thank you so much for your assistance. Is the Army not going to enter Erbil?"

"Mr. Talabani," I said, "the time has come to implement the first stages of the Agreement. All PUK fighters will need to leave the city from the West Gate only and surrender all arms to the Iraqi Army. Once you have personally confirmed that all armed Kurds in the city have surrendered only then will the Army enter Erbil and conduct a thorough comb through of the city. If we discover any armed fighters or unemptied weapons caches we will take it as a repudiation of the Agreement. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir," he replied in an exhausted voice.

"Why don't you take a few days to ensure that you have the city in hand. My army can continue to camp outside until then."

A few days later I was standing within the Erbil Citadel, the oldest part of the city, on a hastily constructed parapet next to Jalal Talabani the interim Governor of the region. My Danger Sense was higher than it had been in a year and I was shitting myself internally.

In the presence of a packed civilian crowd and some media, we announced the signing of the September Agreement bringing an end to the hostilities. There was scattered applause in the crowd which heartened me. I had been expecting to have shoes chucked at me.

(Break)

In a sign of how fickle the world media is, I went from being a demon to the poster child of progress. Media outlets including the brand new Cable News Network hailed a new era of peace in Iraq and the actions of the Iraqi Army which had avoided any direct civilian casualties during the hostilities and very few military losses as well. It was rather a bloodless coup.

What I was very pleased about was that the whole escapade left Iran frothing as their proxy war in Iraq came to an abrupt end.

Not everything went to plan however. My grandiose idea of having the Kurds prosecute their own people who had formulated and executed the attack in Kirkuk failed on arrival. We all knew that Masoud Barzani was behind it, but the man and his entire tribal family escaped to Iran long before the final battle of Erbil. Nonetheless, I insisted the trial go ahead even though the accused were not present in person. To their credit, the Kurds investigated and prosecuted the affair thoroughly. There was reams of evidence based on which not only did the Supreme Court convict the missing accused, but we also forwarded the information and evidence to interpol who issued red corner notices for the Barzani Network.

Oh..and in the meantime Uday was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole. No one gave a shit except a few catty news outlets and his mother who took to wearing black as Le Parisien reported.

A/N: Time Skip coming in the next chapter which should be rather fun to write. The reason? Not that much happened in 1982-1984 given the stuff at the beginning of the decade and at the end of it.