|
Kurds,
Jews, and Shi’a shoes
|
| Source
: Gerald A. Honigman - ekurd.net - opinion - |
|
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the
content of news information on this page |
|
Kurds, Jews, and Shi’a shoes
22.12.2008
By Gerald A. Honigman, eKurd.net Contributing Writer
|
|
|
|
December
22, 2008
As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, on a recent
surprise visit to Iraq, President Bush had to duck
when a Shi’a Arab journalist threw shoes at him in
protest of American policies and presence in Iraq.
During a news conference, Muntadhar al-Zaidi yelled
out, “this is a gift from the Iraqis, a farewell
kiss, you dog” and fired away.
Thrown shoes and dogs
are about as low as you go in the Arab world. Forget
about “Marley and Me,” “Rin Tin Tin,” or “Old
Yeller”.
I wish I could say that I was shocked by this
disrespect usually reserved for such folks as the
tolerant Arabs’ “kilab yahud"—Jew dogs. I wasn’t.
Polls show that most Arab Iraqis—especially Shi’a—supported
al-Zaidi. While he was roughed up by those with a
stake in the current regime, those later reports
reveal the pulse of the nation. While the Sunni have
no love for America either—they were Saddam’s
folks—they now fear what’s in store for themselves
later on.
While estimates of the
dead vary (some hundreds of thousands), the 60% of
Iraq who are Shi’a had their own aspirations
suppressed only via the iron fist of the Sunni
Arabs’ Saddam. He employed the same murderous
tactics against them as he did with non-Arab Kurds
in the north. |
Gerald A. Honigman is a Florida educator who has done extensive
doctoral studies in Middle Eastern Affairs. He has created and
conducted counter-Arab propaganda programs for college youth, has
lectured on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has publicly
debated many Arab spokesmen. His articles and op-eds have been
published in dozens of newspapers, magazines, academic journals and
websites all around the world. |
Similar bloody actions
against others in neighboring Iran by the majority non-Arab,www.ekurd.net
Persian Shi’a are
probably not a bad model for what to expect after
America leaves a Shi’a-dominated Iraq as well
…Payback time, so to speak. And don’t expect a
President Obama to move back in.
Unfortunately, the Kurds will also be caught up in
this murderous, age old Arab feud. The one thing
both Shi’a and Sunni Arabs can agree on (just like
with Israel, the black African Sudan, Berber North
Africa, and elsewhere) is that Kurds should have no
claims on alleged “purely Arab patrimony.”
Having supported America’s move against Saddam,
decades of intense study, publication in academic
journals and elsewhere, and involvement with the
region still made me very wary.
While the Arabs owed Great Britain a huge debt for
the very creation of a united, Arab-ruled Iraq out
of the post-World War I Mandate of Mesopotamia, this
didn’t stop them not long afterwards from rising up
against what they only saw as British imperialism.
No giving the devil his due here…Use him then lose
him.
I can understand that. Too bad Arabs can’t grant
this same understanding to others though.
Imperialism is only nasty when it’s not Arabs
dishing it out. How do you think the region became
“purely Arab patrimony” in too many an Arab mind?
Without the Brits’ involvement, the Turkish phoenix
rising under Ataturk from the ruins of the
centuries’ old Ottoman Empire would have surely
grabbed the oil-rich region around Mosul (which it
formerly ruled) and probably would have extended its
claim to the black gold of Kirkuk as well.
To make the new prospective Arab state viable (the
British navy had recently switched from coal to oil
and was the main arm of the British Empire), the
Brits had to attach the oil of the Kurdish north to
the Sunni Arab center and Shi’a Arab oil of the
south.
In the process of siring the Middle East’s version
of Yugoslavia, London thus shafted Kurds out of the
best chance they ever had at regaining their own
independence…something the Brits had promised them
earlier as well.
After having their very country created and handed
to them by the Brits (who also supplied aircraft and
such to fight the Kurds), the Arabs soon revolted to
try to drive the Brits out.
Granted, imperialism has its nasty side, and the
Brits created an Arab Iraq for their own reasons,
yet still…
So, the point here is that America should have known
not to expect any gratitude from most Iraqi Arabs
either. Hence the thrown shoes, the thrower now a
national hero, and so forth.
There’s yet another angle to this…
Think of all the American blood, lives, money, and
other aid which have been spent for the sake of
Arabs in Iraq, giving them new freedoms which they
have never had.
Trillions of American dollars will be spent before
it’s over, billions each month. Visit a local VA
hospital to see just some of the other tragic,
lasting costs…That shoe-thrower who called President
Bush a dog would have literally been fed to the dogs
if he tried that trick with the man America freed
him from. The innocents who died whom the shoe
thrower complained about mostly died because of the
same cowardly Arab trick Israel deals with daily.
Arabs love to use their non-combatants as human
shields…against the Geneva Conventions,www.ekurd.net
and so forth. They shoot
and then run behind the skirts of their women and
toys of their kids.
Was/is America hoping to get something positive for
itself as a result of its Iraq expenditures?
Sure…But does that erase the above truisms?
Think about those anti-Israel voices quick to
protest about two billion dollars in aid sent to
Israel each year…an investment whose return comes
back to us positively in many ways.
The current war in Iraq costs America more (for the
sake of Arabs who mostly hate us as “infidels” in a
context of a war for their Dar ul-Islam) in one week
than Israel gets in foreign assistance in one year.
And, in exchange for that assistance, the State
Department feels it has the right to pressure Jews
into suicidal concessions.
America has already spent about $500 billion dollars
for Iraq, with much more set to come.
It would take Israel centuries to get this much aid
from America. And Israel doesn’t ask for American
blood to be shed on its behalf or to be bribed to
display America’s own values and democratic
inclinations. How long will the latter last among
Arabs after America’s exit from Iraq?
Ironically, the one people in Iraq who better share
our values--the Kurds--are the folks the Arabist
James Baker types in the State Department are
determined to shaft yet again on behalf of Arabs who
want to be sure that oil in Kurdish lands remains
part of the “purely Arab patrimony.”
Sound familiar?
Same shafting game you read above…just different
shafters.
While I didn’t vote for the Obama-Biden ticket
largely because of the long list of known
anti-Semitic and anti-Israel friends and advisors
Obama has aligned himself with (he’s already brought
several into his future Administration), Senator Joe
Biden has a better understanding of the Yugoslavian
nature of Iraqi demographics than most politicians.
I’m hoping against the odds that he’ll pull more
weight than the shaft the Jews and the Kurds Arabist
types which are all-too-common in the State
Department (and among Obama’s buddies) which Senator
Hillary Rodham Clinton will soon be leading.
Copyright by Gerald A. Honigman. eKurd.net,
December 21, 2008. You may reach the
author via email at: honigman6 (at) msn.com .
Gerald A. Honigman is a Florida educator who has
done extensive doctoral studies in Middle Eastern
Affairs. He has created and conducted counter-Arab
propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured
on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has
publicly debated many Arab spokesmen. His articles
and op-eds have been published in dozens of
newspapers, magazines, academic journals and
websites all around the world. Visit his
website at
http://www.geraldahonigman.com/
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
|
|
®
