I welcome the outpouring of support for
our Kurdish neighbors by the Harrisonburg community at large and the
Daily News-Record in particular.
During my 40 years of international relief and development service I
was privileged to work in over 50 countries in Asia, Africa and
Latin America as well as an assignment in Bosnia and two in Northern
Iraq (Iraqi Kurdistan).
My first assignment in Iraq was in 1991, immediately after Desert
Storm. The Disaster Assistance Response Team of USAID, of which I
was a member, helped rescue the Kurds from the mountains in Turkey.
They had been driven there by Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guards.
The second time was in 1995 while team leader of the Disaster
Assistance Response Team working with a number of American NGO’s who
were helping the Kurds rebuild their villages that had been
destroyed by the Iraqi troops.
The Kurds stand out in my memory for their ability to survive and
keep going under extreme conditions. Their loyalty and dedication to
their work and each other was remarkable. Their honesty was beyond
reproach and I could cite a number of examples demonstrating this
quality.
In 1996, they were punished again by Saddam, this time for working
with American NGO’s and USAID and were forced again to flee their
homeland for their safety. Now, it seems, they may be punished by
the U.S. government for sending money without a license to their
needy relatives
It seems to me that this infraction is analogous to unknowingly
driving with an expired license. It is certainly an infraction, but
hardly rises to the level of a felony.
If these cases are allowed to proceed with harsh penalties given, it
will demonstrate the truth of an old adage that "no good deed goes
unpunished." Let good sense prevail.
H.D. Swartzendruber, Harrisonburg
dailynews-record com
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