Congress split on keeping Iraq together
Kurdish independence is gaining support on Capitol Hill but the administration still supports Baghdad.
Lawmakers of both parties urged the Barack Obama administration to rethink its support for a united Iraq during a July 23 hearing on the threat posed by Islamist militants.
The rapid gains by the Islamic State group (IS) have rekindled calls for a reassessment of US policy in the country. Pro-Kurdish lawmakers say the time is ripe to back the Kurds' calls for greater autonomy and even independence, pointing to the Peshmerga militia's ability to keep militants at bay while the dispirited national army cut and ran.
"Maybe we have to give up on the idea, after 12 years of trying, of a strong, central, functional government that holds sway over the whole country based in Baghdad," Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said at the House Foreign Affairs hearing.
Ranking member Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., said the administration was holding the Kurds "hostage" by continuing to back a strong central government that's plagued by political paralysis.
