Where there is no fighting in Iraq

http://www.kurdistanobserver.com ^ | Ralph Peters

[Adam36]

Where The Fighting Isn't

[Adam36]

Where The Fighting Isn't

New York Post

By: Ralph Peters

April 8, 2004 -- AS violence in Iraq dominates the news, imagine a Middle Eastern country in which the government works in simple offices and spends its money on education, a state in which the prime minister still lives in his parents' home and builds libraries instead of palaces.

How about a Middle East in which young men and women study together at a university where no political party rules the campus, freedom of speech is encouraged and internet access is unrestricted.

Try, if you can, to imagine a Middle Eastern population that regards America with respect and gratitude.

It isn't a dream. It's a reality.

Welcome to free Kurdistan.

As my former comrades in the military struggled against terror and violent rebellion in central and southern Iraq, I was embarrassingly safe in the same country. While mortar rounds were landing in Baghdad and our military displayed its power and resolve in Fallujah, I was sweating in a traffic jam.

It was a great traffic jam. In this case, it was a sign of the economic progress the Kurdis have been making. And the only "terrorist" is the occasional lousy driver.

People walk the streets and live their lives without fear. And women aren't attacked for dressing as they choose.

The Kurdish capital city of Suleimaniye can seem like a giant construction site. But in place of the corruption that plagues development elsewhere in the region, much of the work is done under rigorous government-private sector partnerships. The Kurds are even implementing zoning codes and thinking about the environment.

Anyone who has ever been to the Middle East knows that this is just short of a miracle. The prime minister, Dr. Barham Salih, doesn't fit the pattern either. Instead of fearing him or hating him, the people love him - he's the closest thing Kurdistan has to a matinee idol. And instead of using his popularity to enrich himself or establish a ruling dynasty, he's encouraging democracy. (He's even had a kebab shop named after him. I'm still waiting for Bush Burgers in D.C.)

The University of Suleimaniye, devastated by Saddam, has been rebuilt and now has over 7,000 students. And they're a lively bunch - serious, hardworking and, most important, full of probing questions. Female students can choose for themselves whether or not to wear headscarves. Most choose not to - but everyone respects everyone else - and they all sit and study together. American parents of college-age sons and daughters could only envy the intensity and hunger with which these young people pursue education.

Go to that university and, instead of hearing anti-American protests, you'll hear how the 101st Airborne Division got their Dell computers through to them, red tape be damned. On how many campuses in the world do the students regard an American general (in this case, Maj. Gen. Dave Petraeus) as a hero?

The United Nations stole the money the Kurds should have received under Saddam. Now, the United States has redirected the remaining Oil-for-Food funds and the Kurds are using them with an efficiency never before seen in the region. Astonishingly, the money is really going to the people. Instead of the U.N.'s outdated, overpriced medicine, the Kurds can now bargain hard in the marketplace for the goods the people desperately need.

Most importantly, instead of succumbing to the culture of blame that plagues the Middle East, the Kurds have gone to work to build a better future.

Their country is still very poor. But it's free. And freedom really does work.

Business is encouraged, the government stresses the future, not the past, and the leaders are trying their best to work constructively with old enemies. De- spite horrific suffering in the recent past, the leaders are hopeful, not vengeful. They know that a unified Iraq may not work - but they're determined that the failure will not be their fault. And they cherish freedom.

Isn't this what we claim we want in the Middle East?

At a time when elements within both Sunni Arab and Shi'a Arab Iraqi society are trying to kill the Americans who liberated their country and when there is no sense of gratitude for our sacrifices, how can the Bush administration fail to grasp that the future of the region lies in what the Kurds have done successfully, not in the Arab cult of failure?

The Kurds are far from perfect. So are we. We're all human. But this small people deserves our respect and support - no matter what else happens in Iraq. If we truly want to help spread freedom, we have to start by backing those who have made freedom work - against tremendous odds.

Almost 100 years ago, Lincoln Steffens, an American charlatan, returned from the brand-new Soviet Union. Disembarking from his ship on a New York City pier, he told a great lie. A radical socialist, he said, "I have seen the future, and it works." I hope I'm more honest than Steffens was, but I'll paraphrase his words and say, "I've seen what the future of the Middle East could be. And we should all hope to God that it works."

Ralph Peters is the author of "Beyond Baghdad: Postmodern War and Peace."

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[rageaholic]

Good, cut it off from the rest of Iraq and declare it an independant nation. The Kurds have the oil. The south has nothing, let them fight out their old tribal hatreds. We can come back when the ashes cool.

[anniegetyourgun]

It's amazing. You'd think the rest of the Iraqis would see what cooperation and civility has gotten the Kurds. But, no, they hate the Kurds too much to see past the ethnic hatred to what could be a better day for themselves....

[SAMWolf]

IMHO, PC and the Turks be damned, give the Kurds their own Country.

[TrebleRebel]

The already have it. Kurdistan is just like Scotland. The Kurds are happy with the this arrangement.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

To ask a more serious question, " Is there any way that we could help those students out? Say with books for their library, old computers, printers, etc?"

[Chinese_American_Patriot]

I always respected the Kurds and I'm glad that they are making huge progress. But Muslims and Arabs are too savage and old fashioned to follow the Kurd's lead.

[FreedomPoster]

An online friend on a neutral board, who has been over in Iraq for the last 6-8 months, posted this today, saying "this is the Iraq I have been in".

[XHogPilot]

There is absolutely no greater threat to OPEC, Syria, Iran, and the rabble of central & Southern Iraq than a free Kurdish nation. Perhaps it is time to unsheath that sword.

[XHogPilot]

The already have it. Kurdistan is just like Scotland. The Kurds are happy with the this arrangement.

No, the Kurds are not happy with the arrangement. It is just the best they have been able to negotiate. And as for comparisons to Scotland, the Scots are not surrounded by other nations and tribes violently interfering with their lives.

[Enduring Freedom]

There is no greater threat to the Free World than by DemocRATS.

Those treasonous dogs threaten the very safety and security of you and your family.

By their constant moaning and griping for political power, they embolden our enemy and have endangered American lives.

[Adam36]

Bush should stop the nonsense and talk about a Kurdish state. 99 percent of the Kurds support America. Its so stupid Bush wants a PLO state, even thought 95 percent of the Palestinains support Iraq and there attacks against Americans. Now the PLO is sending terrorists to kill Americans in Iraq. Bush needs to tell the Arabs, there is going to be a Kurdish state.

[FreedomSurge]

"Lincoln Steffens, an American charlatan, returned from the brand-new Soviet Union. Disembarking from his ship on a New York City pier, he told a great lie. A radical socialist, he said, "I have seen the future, and it works." "

He actually wrote this in Sweden on his way to the USSR - before he had ever set foot in the worker's paradise.

[Adam36]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satell...p=1078027574121

Palestinians salute Iraqi 'intifada'
Jerusalem Post ^ | Apr. 7, 2004 | KHALED ABU TOAMEH

Hundreds of Palestinians marched in the streets of Ramallah on Wednesday to condemn the US and express their support for the resistance attacks against the coalition forces in Iraq.

The protesters carried placards denouncing American "massacres" against the Iraqi people and shouted slogans calling for retaliatory attacks against the US. They expressed their full support for the insurgents in Iraq who are waging a war of attrition against the US-led coalition forces, pointing out that the Iraqis and the Palestinians were fighting the same war against the powers of evil.

Representatives of various Palestinian factions – including Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad – participated in the anti-American demonstration.

The demonstrators called on Arabs in neighboring countries to take to the streets to protest against the US and urge their governments to support the Iraqi resistance. They also shouted slogans condemning the Arab heads of state as traitors and collaborators with Israel and the US.

Similar demonstrations took place in Gaza. Palestinian Authority officials did not comment on the events in Iraq in public to avoid voicing criticism of the US. A senior PA official in Ramallah said PA Chairman Yasser Arafat was following the developments in Iraq "with great interest."

A senior Hamas official described the current violence in Iraq as "another chapter of repression against the Iraqi people and their resistance."

The official added: "Palestine and Iraq are one body. We express our condemnation for the arbitrary killings that the Iraqi people are being subjected to at the hands of the occupation coalition forces led by the US." Lauding the "brave" Iraqi resistance, the Hamas official called on all Arab and Muslim countries to interfere to stop the American military offensive against the insurgents and help the Iraqi people expel the occupiers.

The Islamic Jihad organization issued a statement in the Gaza Strip strongly condemning the "American massacres" against the Iraqi people and calling on the Iraqis to step up their attacks against the coalition forces.

"The massacres in Iraq expose the intentions of the US and prove that it did not come to bring democracy and freedom, but for hegemony, control, theft, and colonialism," said the statement.

It welcomed the Iraqi "intifada" and called on the Arabs and Muslims to support the Iraqis and Palestinians "against American and Zionist terrorism in Iraq and Palestine." The Palestinian People's (Communist) Party said the defeat of the Americans in Iraq would bring about the collapse of US plans on the international arena.

Khaled Mansour, senior member of the Palestinian People's Party in Ramallah, hailed the "courageous" Iraqi resistance, saying it was a "natural response and a legitimate right of a people being subjected invasion and the theft of its resources."

Mansour said the US military operations in Iraq were similar to the Israeli measures against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "A people under attack and invasion, whose sons are being thrown into prison by the thousands, and whose houses are being demolished, has the right resist and defend itself," he added.

He said the Iraqi resistance provided a glimmer of hope that strengthens the Palestinians' struggle and "affirms to all that the fighting peoples are capable of defeating the US schemes in the region."

[Enduring Freedom]

Wow!

I like that.

I like that alot.

[Orlando]

I agree 100%

[lainde]

This article made my day!

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the info TrebleRebel.

[dufekin]

We should not forget that just a decade ago, Kurdistan was mired in ruinous civil war. Representative forms of government don't form instantaneously. The British parliamentary system took centuries to evolve. The American system of governance took a decade and a half (1776 Declaration of Independence-1791 Bill of Rights) beyond independence. Germany and France both "elected" dictators who tried to conquer Europe during their first decades ans a republic. Many Latin American countries still struggle with the concept of freedom.

Patience is a virtue. Iraq won't be democratic overnight...it'll take a few years at the least.