|
Iraqi Kurds: A Forgotten People
14.9.2006
|
|
|
|
WASHINGTON - To
hear the steady beat of bad news from Iraq, you'd
think the whole country is awash in sectarian strife
and car bombings.
But one part of Iraq has been remarkably peaceful,
especially for American troops.
The Kurds throughout history have been a rugged
warrior race, but they have no beef with democracy
or America, and no U.S. forces have been killed or
kidnapped in Kurdistan region of Iraq.
In fact, 90 percent of the Kurds have a favorable
impression of America, a real anomaly in the Arab
and Muslim world.
A major reason for that is because American forces
and their allies did so much to protect the Kurds
from the killing wrath of Saddam Hussein, starting a
few months after the end of the first Gulf war.
The long-time dictator definitely had it in for the
Kurds, and if he's executed in the days ahead, one
of the major reasons will be for the war crimes he
committed against them in the 70s and 80s.
That includes gassing, bombing, and killing Kurds by
the hundreds of thousands, and chasing hundreds of
thousands of others out of their ancient
territories.
Much of that had to do with oil, because Kurds
occupy some of Iraq's most oil-rich regions.
The same is true for Kurds in Turkey, Syria and
Iran; they're sitting on some of the most valuable
oil reserves in those three lands. That is why Iraq,
Turkey, Syria, and Iran have all so fiercely opposed
the idea of a free Kurdistan, carved out of their
four nations.
It's one of the reasons Kurds have been among the
most enthusiastic of voters in post-Saddam Iraq.
They believe there's a real chance in a truly
democratic Iraq, that they'll be able to divest
themselves of Baghdad's control, and continue to at
least maintain their status as a fairly autonomous
region. Then maybe some day, they could translate
that into true freedom, as a prosperous, independent
Kurdistan.
They'll likely have to do it all on their own,
though.
The same world that's so adamant in demanding that
10 million Palestinians be given their own homeland,
never raises a similar cry for the 30 million Kurds
-- by far, the world's largest ethnic minority
without a home to call its own.
cbn com
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 