A Kurd in the Hand is worth two to Bush

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
1

This thread is in response to the suggestion that the US/UK’s air strikes and impending war mongering in Iraq are a pre-emptive action to save the Kurds from Saddam Hussein’s dastardly plans of ethnic cleansing.

I won’t be cutting and pasting but will provide links that support the crux of each statement.

The Kurds, as no doubt you all know, had an empire some eight centuries ago led by Saladin in the days of yore when he was royally giving Richard the Lion heart a good seeing to during the crusades. The Kurdish people now are spread over Turkey (~15million), Iran (~6million) and Iraq (~3million).

The Kurds have for years been viewed as a nuisance by all three countries and have been denied the right to a Kurdish homeland (Kurdistan). The main propagator of violence towards the Kurds has been and is the Turkish state; they have not been short of support in their campaign and have in the past outsourced massacres to British firms. One British firm drew up plans to irradiate Kurdish villages in an attempt to quash any further uprisings.

http://www.projectfreedom.cng1.com/kurds.html

The British have been very forthcoming in their help to eradicate the Turkish Kurds and were even willing to flood many of the valleys in Eastern Turkey in order to help out their Turkish clients until international pressure denied them this lucrative contract.

http://www.sandyford.techie.org.uk/ache10.htm

For years Kurds from a global perspective have been used politically to endorse dubious global policy, wherein we have groups of good Kurds (in Iraq) and bad Kurds (in Turkey and Iran) formed.

Depending on the current state of affairs either Kurd card can be played.

Naturally we should at this point discuss the Iraqi Kurds, US/UK claims of Kurdish massacres by the Baath party had been heavily circulated in the world press at the lead up of the first Gulf war. However, independent investigation yield only retaliatory strikes against Kurdish militia that were supported by Iran and US in the Iran Iraq war in the 80’s.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/kurdish/htdocs/his/Khaledtext.html

The US has played the Kurdish card to great effect in galvanizing public opinion against the troubling Iraqi regime over the past 10 or so years. The US government had a vested interest in the Iraqi Kurds during the Iran Iraq war after it spent resources in training and arming these groups to fight against the ruling party in Iraq. After several failed attempts at a successful uprising the US left the Kurds out in cold, only to be picked back up before the first Gulf war. The general thought in Washington in 1991 was that it knew that simply arming the Kurds would not be enough in gaining proxy control of Iraq and that the Kurdish situation must be played in some way and in some respects with greater impact. Here the birth of the Iraqi Kurdish massacres took place.

http://www.afsc.org/pwork/1199/119914.htm

One may suggest that the Kurds have been terrorized, one may suggest that the Kurdish people have been marginalized, one may even suggest that the Kurds have been subjected to ethnic cleansing-I would fully agree. But not by the Iraqi but by the Turkish state. And all the while the British and US governments haven’t missed a trick in using the Kurdish situation in any of it’s forms to it’s full potential in forwarding their own financial and political agendas.

2

Where were the American's when the British authorities in Iraq were ordering poison gas to be used against the Iraqi Kurds, something advocated by Bush's hero Winston Churchill?

Why did Donald Rumsfeld deem it fit to shake hands and dine with Saddam Hussein in 1980's, at a time when it was obvious Saddam was using chemical wepaons?

After the Halabja gassing of the Kurds, why did the Reagan Administration try it's best to cover-up and conceal the facts of this crime, so that they could maintain their cosy relations with Saddam? At the same time why did the UK PM at the time Margaret Thatcher dismiss Halabja as an "internal affair" of Iraq's?

3

Saladin was of Kurdish heritage but was commanding Egyptian army... What he did to crusaders should be done to presend day terrorist. Saladin was too nice to these terrorist no wonder they call him a hero in the west. Please watch "Islam Empire of Faith" the second episode.

4

Yes..all too sad. But what were the muslims doing. Sitting on their butts. For all this lamentation of inaction of the west. Some introspection is direly needed for the ummah. And by the way....this is not only for the muslims but also for Russia, China, India etc...anyof these supposedly great and wanna be great countries could have done something.

Very easy to poke incriminations against the US but do something about it. In the end, all you people blame the leaders, the west, blah..blah..blah..but it's never our fault. The Ummah is weak...Kya Karein :(

5

Inaction of the West? It's the meddling buffoonery that I was pointing out.

6

Thappo, read Malik's post. Damnedif you do, damned if you don't. This is getting sorry...

7

No don't give up now CH I think you summed it up nicely, God damned the US.

8

Yet again the Kurdish card was played and now they have been all but forgotten in the greater 'scheming' of things.

9

Thap, I agree with your conclusion, but two points should be clarified. First, Saladin's army can't really be considered a Kurdish empire. Second, why did the Kurds ally with Iran in the 80s? because Saddam was oppressing them. Even so, in war they made themselves a legitimate target and the Iraqi response wasn't irregular with the general conduct of the war against all parties. That is, Saddam didn't gas the Kurds because they were Kurds.

CH, 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' isn't an unfortunate consequence of history.. in this case it's been a calculated tool.

10

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Thap: *
Yet again the Kurdish card was played and now they have been all but forgotten in the greater 'scheming' of things.
[/QUOTE]

Indeed, once again the (Iraqi) Kurds have been betrayed by the American's.

11

So lets see, what have the Kurds gotten so far? Their Independence? Any freedom? Any benefits? Or are they like all iraqis, dying to some trigger happy GI? No difference in iraq, be it the sunni triangle (is this related to the bermuda triangle or bermuda shorts?) Kurdistan or the Shia "safe-zone". They all die to americans.

12

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by CM: *
So lets see, what have the Kurds gotten so far? Their Independence? Any freedom? Any benefits? Or are they like all iraqis, dying to some trigger happy GI? No difference in iraq, be it the sunni triangle (is this related to the bermuda triangle or bermuda shorts?) Kurdistan or the Shia "safe-zone". They all die to americans.
[/QUOTE]

The Kurds will most likely be betrayed by the American's as they have been for many decades, as will the Shia-majority whom the American's are terrified of.