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The Middle East's forgotten democracy
15.2.2007
By Jason A. Atkinson |
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February 15, 2007
Sometimes in a highly charged political atmosphere
the obvious gets overlooked, even something truly
important that history will later reflect on with
absolute clarity. Despite the endless bad news we've
heard from central Iraq, there's a quiet revolution
going on to the north. Thanks to years of military
protection, the Kurds have succeeded in creating the
one thing President Bush seeks in the Arab world: a
beachhead of democracy. Don't expect to hear about
this in the media, but the Kurdistan Regional
Government is a genuine U.S. success in the war on
terror – if we can keep it.
Like most Americans, my first exposure to the Kurds
of northern Iraq was the video images of whole
families lying dead in the street as a result of
Saddam Hussein's genocidal attacks. I also recall TV
footage a few years later showing thousands of Kurds
fleeing into the mountains to escape Saddam's
gunships after the first Gulf War. But as soon as
the no-fly zone went into effect, and the Kurds were
relatively safe from Saddam, most Americans turned
their attention to the "highly charged" 1992
Clinton-Bush campaign. The Kurds may have left our
radar screen here in the states, but they continued
to quietly build their democratic dream. |
U.S. Senator Jason Atkinson.
Official web site |
However, now 15 years later and despite huge
advances since 2003, that dream may be in trouble –
the Kurds are again being forgotten. Thanks to the
media's obsession with Baghdad violence (and any
other American "failures"), we are only getting half
the Iraq War story – and not the northern half where
the news is not just good. It's revolutionary.
Recently, I traveled to northern Iraq to take a look
for myself at this quiet revolution. I wasn't there
as a tourist but more as a genuine witness to a
special moment, one that our mainstream media will
never tell you about – at least not with any passion
or persistence. I was part of a group that included
Gold Star parents, fathers and mothers who lost
their children in battle for the sake of a new Iraq.
They came there to meet the people their sons had
died to liberate, people who had thankfully survived
Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, an era of cruelty we
Americans can hardly imagine.
Most of us heard about Saddam's 1989 gassing of the
Kurds (over 12,000 human beings were murdered in one
day). We've seen those gruesome pictures of dead
bodies lying frozen in the place where they choked
to death, often mothers with their children by their
side. But Saddam's plan to destroy the Iraqi Kurds
was, shall we say, more "comprehensive." It was all
part of what he and his political thugs called the "Anfal"
campaign, a systematic effort to demoralize and
dominate a whole society. And they were good at it,
as I found out traveling to the city of Sulaimaniyah,
not far from the Iranian border.
From the outside, the "Red House," as the Kurds call
it, didn't look like much – a simple three-story
building, nondescript in all ways except its dark
red concrete. But this evil place was a typical
example of the Baath Party's systematic torture and
murder of innocent Kurds, all part of Saddam's reign
of terror.
The Kurds have now set up the Red House as a kind of
tyranny museum, a house of horrors full of rooms
that use life-sized, plaster statues to graphically
demonstrate the true nature of totalitarianism. It's
a serious and good lesson.
Our guide led the Gold Star parents into a
wood-lined room where a figure of a man with his
hands bound behind his back is hung by his wrists
from a pipe high above the floor. The suspended
statue graphically demonstrated how a man's body
weight can slowly pull his arms from their shoulder
sockets. We also learned how Baath soldiers would at
the same time connect electrodes to the most
sensitive parts of the man's body – but their goal
was more than causing intense pain. In the adjacent
room, the prisoner's parents were forced to sit and
listen to the screams of their son, stripped of all
his human and masculine dignity, hanging like raw
meat and electrocuted simply for being a Kurd.
This kind of cruelty ruled the day in Saddam's Iraq.
No wonder people rejoiced at his execution. The
dictator is dead, yet the stories of his cruel
regime live on as a warning. The Anfal campaign
sought to destroy a race of people – to crush their
spirit, often in the most devious ways.
According to centuries of custom, a widowed Kurdish
woman could not remarry without visually verifying
her husband's remains. By killing the men and
burying them in anonymous mass graves, the dictator
destroyed the lives of thousands upon thousands of
Kurdish women who were left without knowing the fate
of their men, left with no hope of rebuilding their
lives, left with no future. This was one terrible
and unreported effect of Saddam's genocide.
As we walked from room to room in the Red House, I
admit it was hard for me to believe my eyes. It's
all so far from our American experience – and from
what we hear in the media these days. But our group
had an eyewitness along to keep us from turning away
in disbelief.
"Yes, yes," our guide said in a hushed voice,
staring at the floor. "They did this to me." Kowa
Krooz survived the hell of the Red House for seven
months and 13 days. "It's important you see your
sons did not die in vain," he told the Gold Star
parents. "They saved people like me. I thank God for
America."
Strange to hear those words in person from an Iraqi,
the people who are supposed to hate our presence –
"Thank God for America." It's not something we're
used to hearing on the evening news, but I wish we
Americans could know how often those words are said
by passionately grateful Kurds.
And there's much more we need to know – especially
our political leaders in Washington.
Of the four key things Congress should consider
before abandoning this potentially great ally, the
first must be the Kurds' genuine and prolonged
suffering, not only at the hands of Saddam but also
for generations before, starting most vividly at the
end of World War I when the Kurdish people were
promised a homeland only to see their ethnic lands
divided in four parts, allotted to four different
nations: Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq.
Although it's hard for us to imagine Kurdish
hardships of the past (or the true joys of their
newfound freedom), we must try to understand and
fully appreciate this current historic moment – for
their sake, and also for our own. The Iraqi Kurds
are too good an ally to lose. Ask yourself how Iran
and Syria with their own Kurdish populations are now
reacting to the example of a free Kurdistan region –
right next door.
Having been there and seen the Kurdish miracle for
myself, it is hard for me to imagine that we could
miss such a geopolitical and humanitarian
opportunity due to mere partisan congressional
politics – and lack of American media interest. How
could we not know the wonderful good our own
soldier's have accomplished with their blood, sweat
and tears? After all, a tyrant is dead and a nation
is free, and that's just the beginning of the good
that could come. This isn't just about American
generosity. There is a spectacular strategic benefit
from our efforts in Iraq, and that brings me to the
second thing we need to know.
The Kurdish region of northern Iraq has itself
become a true beachhead of democracy in the Arab
world. The Bush administration should be pointing to
the Kurdistan Regional Government as the Iraq war's
surest triumph. The troubles to the south are not
the only story: Americans need to know that a strong
and flourishing democracy in northern Iraq not only
gives terrorists one less place to organize, it
gives America a genuine alliance with a people who
are passionate about freedom and positive about the
West, a shining hope to a freedom-starved Middle
East. Everywhere I went the tri-color Iraqi
Kurdistan flag flew proudly with its bold sun symbol
right in the middle. I couldn't help but think how
appropriate that sun symbol is. After years of
darkness, liberty has taken hold in the hearts of
the Kurds, and their peaceful Kurdish democracy has
become a singular beacon in the war on terror,
despite the murderous strife going on in Baghdad.
This foothold of freedom did not happen overnight
but by dint of hard work and sacrifice. Once the
Kurds were given the opportunity – starting with the
no-fly zone in 1991 – they chose democracy and never
looked back. They worked to build a stable
government, protecting human and religious
differences in much the same way Americans did after
the Declaration of Independence, and based on
essentially the same moral and social contracts
found in the U.S. Constitution. They created their
own police force, their own judiciary, their own
parliament and executives. Who could forget those
purple fingers waving defiantly above those happy,
smiling faces as the first free election in
Kurdistan, Iraq, chose a regional president and
prime minister!
Freedom is working, but you'd never know it to watch
the American media. Why? Because Kurdistan is also
safe! No terrorism to report. To date, no coalition
solider has died or even been wounded in the
northern territory controlled by the Kurdistan
Regional Government.
So the media looked elsewhere for their bloody
images of chaos and despair, allowing blunt mass
murder to become a viable political tool for the
terrorists. Are you shocked to hear this? Don't be.
Remember the media's penchant for violence. Sadly,
they are not about reporting "good news," or for
that matter anything that sounds like President Bush
made the right decision to rid the world of Saddam
Hussein. The liberal left is not kidding when they
say Iraq is "worse off" in the absence of
totalitarian control. They really think that.
Needless to say, no one asked the Kurds.
The third thing to remember is our historic
obligation. Consider the following: In the late
1970s the United States "supported" Kurdish autonomy
in northern Iraq as a diplomatic means to pressure
Saddam Hussein in his negotiations with Iran. Once
settlement was reached, we abandoned the Kurds and
Saddam's era of maniacal torture began. During the
Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, the Western world barely
noticed when Saddam launched his deadly Anfal
campaign.
Later in the 1990s, the United States encouraged the
Kurds to rise up after the Gulf War and help
overthrow Saddam. The Kurds took us at our word, but
when Saddam attacked them viciously, America was
nowhere to be found. Saddam's killing continued,
forcing the Kurds to again leave their homeland and
flee to the mountains. Hundreds died daily from
starvation and overexposure, women, children and
elderly. It was not until then-Secretary of State
James Baker visited the Kurdish region, and the U.S.
Congress stood their ground, did the no-fly zone get
created. Congress must stand its ground once again
today.
However, thanks to the 2006 election, which gave
liberal Democrats congressional control, the Kurds
again face a defining moment. Will they be
remembered – or will they be forgotten? Sadly,
despite the example they are setting as a democracy
in the Middle East, despite their religious
tolerance and despite their real loyalty in the war
on terror, the Kurdish people are once again in
danger. The Kurdistan Regional Government is
understandably apprehensive as it watches the
leftward drift within the new Congress and among
Democrat presidential candidates. Will America
remain loyal to its own vision of Iraqi freedom, or
will we once again turn our attention away and
abandon an innocent people?
Lastly, we must not forget our troops, either.
Americans must know our solders did not die in vain,
and especially that their lives were not "wasted" as
Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama
recently claimed (and later had to retract). Our
military needs to know that we are genuinely with
them. After all, they are the best America has to
offer. And their sacrifice freed a unique and
deserving people. We must not let that sacrifice
falter in its purpose.
This truth became very real to me as I toured the
Kurdistan region of Iraq, watching the faces of
those Gold Star parents. The greatest disservice we
do to these parents is to give up before the job is
done and thus discount the ultimate price their
children paid. Those lives must remain precious to
us. Those faces must never be forgotten.
My transforming moment – my real connection to these
larger truths of the war – came early in the trip
when we met a Kurdish woman, still wearing the
mourning color of black, who walked out to greet us
holding a framed picture of her missing husband and
three sons who were all taken "somewhere" and killed
during the Saddam era. In sympathy, one of the
American Gold Star mothers held out a picture of her
soldier son who died not long before. The Kurdish
woman, raising her hand to God with the picture of
the young U.S. soldier in her palm began to cry –
saying over and over in Kurdish, "Your son is my
son."
I hope and pray that the reverse is also true, that
their sons are our sons – and that America cares
enough to remain faithful until Iraq is strong and
fully united against terrorism, and until the
enemies of freedom in the Middle East are finally
and thoroughly defeated.
Let the Muslim world continue to witness this
"shining hope" of freedom in the Middle East – a
democracy that works, an economy that thrives and a
nation that could one day stand as a historic
example of how Islam did ultimately and finally
reject "killing the innocent" as a method of war.
I know most of the Gold Star parents want nothing
less. After all, that's what their children – our
children – were fighting for. We can repay that
sacrifice only one way: Victory.
* Recently a candidate for governor in Oregon,
State Sen. Jason Atkinson was elected to the Oregon
Legislature in 1998 as a Republican, soon rising to
be majority whip. He is a management consultant,
motivational speaker and the author of "What We All
Wish Politicians Understood."
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