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Kurds and the future
12.4.2008
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April 12, 2008
Since Iraq's liberation, almost five years ago, the
Kurds of Iraq have constantly mediated between
Iraq's various political factions, while also making
difficult compromises of their own. At the same
time, Kurdish soldiers have been helping their
American allies to restore order in Iraq's
non-Kurdish areas, such as Baghdad.
Yet while all Iraqis struggle to pass outstanding
pieces of legislation, including the elusive
hydrocarbons law, some American policy analysts
consider the Kurds the problem. A few liberal and
conservative writers,www.ekurd.net
in a rare moment of
misguided unity, claim that we Kurds are
self-absorbed, that America owes us nothing, and
that our holding out on certain policies is bad for
Iraq and bad for the U.S. efforts in the region.
It appears that when things stall, it is all too
convenient to blame America's friends the Kurds.
Perhaps we are lectured and blamed because we
actually listen to American advice. Perhaps, for all
the admonitions that we Kurds are overly motivated
by the past, these analysts want to play upon
Kurdish fears of another catastrophic American
betrayal. |
Qubad Talabani is representative of the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) to the United States |
Such reactions are particularly troubling in the
month of March, which is bittersweet for many Iraqi
Kurds.
Not only does this March mark the fifth anniversary
of the liberation of all Iraqis from Saddam's reign
of terror but it is also the anniversary of the
genocide against the Kurdish residents of Halabja,
and elsewhere. As part of Saddam's Anfal campaign 20
years ago, chemical and biological weapons were used
against the citizens of Iraqi Kurdistan and close to
200,000 innocent men, women and children were killed
or were never seen again - until they were exhumed
from mass graves after Iraq's liberation Halabja,
once a vibrant center of Kurdish culture was, in a
day, turned into a symbol of our tragedy. It is our
ground zero.
Nobody in Kurdistan can also forget the disaster of
1991 when we rose up, with American encouragement,
against Saddam only to be abandoned to the Iraqi
dictator's vengeance. Tens of thousands died, as
millions fled to neighboring countries before help
and protection belatedly arrived.
That is why we are determined to set a different
tone in Iraqi politics. That is why we seek a
decentralized state that no future dictator can
control. That is why we seek a transparent and
equitable management and sharing of Iraq's natural
resources.
Sadly, instead of being supported in our efforts we
are vilified and told by some that we are
inflexible. When we agree to have revenues earned
from oil exploration in our region be shared with
all Iraqis, we are attacked for wanting too much.
When we deferred the Kirkuk referendum for six
months, so as to deprive extremists of an excuse for
violence, and give the UN time to provide the much
needed technical assistance to ensure a transparent
process, we are called maximalists. Indeed, the
Washington analysts' rap sheet on the Kurds boils
down to the accusation that we are bad Iraqis.
So if to be a bad Iraqi means to defend the
principles of democracy and the separation of mosque
and state while abiding by Iraq's democratically
ratified constitution - we plead guilty. If fighting
al-Qaeda in Iraq and associated Islamic radicals
with your daring forces while promoting tolerance
within our country and with our neighbors is bad,www.ekurd.net
we stand guilty. If
accepting and providing services in our region to
Iraqi Christian families fleeing for their life from
other parts of the country simply because they are
Christian, while being proud that not one of your
men or women, civilian or military, have been killed
in our region, we again plead guilty.
The wars, ethnic cleansing and genocide of the past
20 years may seem like mere data points to some. To
the citizens of Iraqi Kurdistan, who lived through,
and in many cases barely survived, these events have
created in us a burning desire to build a new future
by strenuously avoiding a repeat of the past.
The “inconvenient truth” is that Iraq's Kurds have
every right to pursue their national self interests
and to defend their hard earned gains. Moreover,
unlike some Washington-based policy analysts, we
face far greater challenges than a potential
shortage of paper clips.
It is a sad day in American intellectual life when
some American policy analysts tell us that they want
the Iraq that was, rather than Iraq that can be.
Qubad Talabani is the representative of the
Kurdistan Regional Government to the United States.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
washingtontimes com
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