Posted on 06/11/2004 3:28:59 AM PDT by Truth29
BETRAYAL
By RALPH PETERS
June 11, 2004 -- THE United States has a reputation for rewarding its enemies, while taking our friends for granted. It's not very reassuring to potential allies. Now we're proving yet again that we can't be trusted.
In a shortsighted effort to please a fundamentalist who will never be our friend, the Bush administration caved in to the demands of the Shi'a Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani to win his acquiescence to this week's U.N. resolution.
The essence of Sistani's position was that the Kurds had to be stripped of their ability to make a legal defense of their civil rights, security and liberty in the new, "free" Iraq.
Kurdistan is the living, breathing model of what we claim we wish for the Middle East. And we're handing it over to brutal, backward bullies. For the sake of quiet until the November elections, as well as to please the decayed Arab regimes in the neighborhood, we've rewarded Iraq's Arabs, who never tire of complaining about America — and who kill our troops whenever they get the chance.
Our position is immoral, vicious and stupid. And — for all the Realpolitikers out there — counterproductive.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
We decided to cut our losses. We could have along with the Kurds but then we'd have to impose them on 80% of Iraq's Arab population that doesn't want democracy or freedom. Yes, we would be better off supporting Kurdish independence. But that is asking a lot in an election year when there are no good choices. What we did was we decided to go with the least bad of all bad choices. That may not be moral but that's the nature of the beast over there in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.
We are setting up the conditions for future civil war when the Arabs try to oppress the Kurds and they rebel IMO.
ping
If the Kurds don't get the federal state they want, they will secede.
There will be unpleasant consequences, and we'll have to do the best we can to pick up the pieces and go on. Hopefully, we'll put a big foot down where attacks on Kurds are concerned, but the stream of Christians leaving Iraq is worrisome, too. Reminds me of Jews getting out of Germany before it was too late.
Kurdistan existing like normal country now, they have everything what they need, US should only confirm this fact. Ralph Peters have absolutely right IMO.
Didn't anyone see the remarks of the new President of Iraq? He has come out firmly on the side of the Kurds, and Federalism is the route that he will follow in Iraq.
This thread is a moot point now.
Excellent article. Love his columns - he tells it like it is and he's usually right. This time he's right for sure and I agree with him we should have held out for the Kurds. We'll live to rue this and anything the Kurds do in protest I won't condemn.
Kerry said Bush didn't get multilaterial approval from the UN. Bush just did this when he went to the UN. US is still calling the shots not France and Germany. UN is not fully control of Iraq which is good. Iraq can make decisions not UN. France and Germany reluctantly signed on and Bush cleaned Kerry's slate.
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