Posted on 11/09/2006 5:35:59 PM PST by Impeach98
Kristinn Taylor's 3rd Report from FREE IRAQ
We've had a jam packed two days. Yesterday we met with the Kurdistan Regional Government's Ministers of Finance, the Interior (security) and Martyrs and Victims. We also visited a former 'concentration camp for Kurds set up by Saddam as a weigh station to extermination. And we got to meet with more American troops.
Today we visited a school that gives a classical education starting from the first grade. The teachers and students were thrilled to meet us.
In fact, everywhere we've gone the children have been thrilled to see us. We don't have any candy to give them, just broad smiles, happy waves and the love in our hearts. But that's enough for them, because they know we are Americans and they know what Americans have done for them.
Later, we were in Suleymaniyah, a thriving metropolis, and were given a guided tour of one of Saddam's prison/torture centers by a former prisoner -- a hell on earth called the Red House.
After the Kurds stormed the prison in 1991 and drove out the Baathists, they decided to preserve it as a memorial and a witness to the Saddam regime's crimes against humanity. They have turned part of it into a birdhouse for 'doves of peace.'
The former prisoner took us through the prison, showing us where Kurds were imprisoned and tortured, and some of the methods of torture including those used on him in his seven months there.
The Kurds also have on display a gallows from Abu Ghraib.
Touring the prison cells, both the families and our Iraqi Kurd escorts got very choked up. Saddam Hussein and his henchmen were evil, and they practiced it on such a scale of brutality that the Iraqis call him their Hitler.
The Kurds have also preserved some of the Soviet military tanks, armored vehicles and mortars Saddam's regime used to wage war on the Iraqi people. They are parked on the prison grounds as a reminder.
Such was the oppression we were told, that in those day those passing by the prison on the main street were commanded to look away from it, lest they themselves be imprisoned there.
The former prisoner now has the keys to the prison, and the truth of the horrors perpetrated there can now be shown to the world.
Our journey to Suleymaniyah took about three hours from Erbil. We drove on new roads that were paralleled by new power lines and phone lines, crossed by new water lines, lined by new construction, farming and new stores.
The peshmerga (military/security force) maintain a strong security presence, but not overbearing. The police and peshmerga work hand in hand to protect northern Iraq from the terrorists -- and they are very successful. We felt very comfortable going about our day, including a stop at the town of Koya where we walked through its shopping bazaars and wandered its streets.
The Iraqi Kurds have been very friendly to us this entire trip. Even though they valiantly fought for their freedom, they know and acknowledge that their efforts could only have succeeded with the help and sacrifices of the American people. They do not want us to cut and run.
For me personally, this trip has made clear the success of the American-led effort in Iraq. That's right, I said success. None of what is happening in the northern part of Iraq would have been possible as long as Saddam and his goons ruled Iraq.
And because Saddam is gone from power, there is one less state sponsor of international terrorism in the world.
We have one more day before we go. This has been an exhilitaring, but emotionally draining trip for the Gold Star families. I am in awe of their strength of spirit and their desire to see the mission of their fallen sons succeed completely everywhere in Iraq.
Stay tuned for more... complete updates posted online at: www.MoveAmericaForward.org
Kristinn Taylor
Can't wait to see the photos.
Thanks for the rant. We all expect the MSM not to cover this good story but the true disappointment is I haven't heard a single Repub talking about this either. They should be taking every chance they can to get this sort of story out to the public every single day.
They rather let the left and MSM define Iraq and the entire WOT for America.
BUMP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Buuump!
As I understand it, the Kurds had at least some measure of independence under one of the no-fly zones. How much they had, and how much actually got done during that time, I have no idea.
However, we blowed up those Baathists real good!
It wasn't a quagmire before, the voting populace made it an impending quagmire because that's what SHOULD follow from a war they would rather not face up to.
At the time, no one believed that JFK's 'stuck in Iraq' comment actually was part of the dem voters' core belief....Americans have created 'another Vietnam' and done it on purpose.
Sorry, I guess that makes it two rants, maybe I'll settle down by Turkey Day...that seems appropriate.
Would someone ask Kristinn if there is talk in the Kurdish areas of a partitioned Iraq, with a Kurdish Northern province or nation? I realize Turkey is against it but they are a NATO ally and will be called upon to agree for M.E. peace sake and to marginalize the Iranians into the festering Shiia strongholds.
"...the importance of seeing the people for whom those Gold Star Families' children risked their lives and I pray they find a measure of peace and pride." "We're proud of all our military and their sacrifices will never, ever be forgotten."
What Peach said. God bless our military and their families.
Strength of spirit bump!
Thanks for the ping, Impeach98.
"It wasn't a quagmire before, the voting populace made it an impending quagmire because that's what SHOULD follow from a war they would rather not face up to."
You'll get no argument from me.
*It wasn't a quagmire before*
Agreed. For a year after the media started the quagmire nonsense I believe the American people ignored them. So what happened? Communication. Repubs in Washington just assumed that the voters could hear it for 2 more years and not start to get worn down by that drum beat of defeat.
Republicans need to be that crucial connection between the war front and America. Standing on your record only works with people who pay regular attention to politics. That's not most people!
*the voting populace made it an impending quagmire*
Agreed. Now we've got Gates who wants to give Iran a sphere of influence and Congressional Repubs who are ticked that Bush won't stop supporting the war and thinking that's what made them lose election.
You don't decide war policy on 6 year mid-term elections but try telling that to the numbskulls on the hill. Now they are looking at anyone to blame for their failure to regularly take their case the American people. You can only blame the MSM so much but they've known for decades that was a problem and they still aren't tackling it. So now impending quagmire is what appears to be on the horizon.
*what SHOULD follow from a war*
Agreed. What most Americans, thanks to the MSM and incompetent communication from the right, heard was 'We Won' and nothing else. The MSM/left picked up on that and beat Bush over the head with it. Why'd they get away with that? Still the real problems came from the inaction towards Syria and Iran early on. Now Gates/Baker thinks it's because we failed to get them involved &^*(&%^??? I thought the problem was because they were involved?
*would rather not face up to*
Agreed. Now whether they were real failures or just MSM hyped failures, the voters are having a hard time facing up to it. They wanted 'change' and voted that way but I still think they'd rather we tackled the problems than run away. They didn't wanna be losers in 2004 when they re-elected Repubs so I have a hard time believing they wanna be losers now. There have been many victories by our military but no one thought they needed to tell anybody.
I do not think Bush is a failed leader but he failed to communicate SUCCESS.
Yeah... Turkey Day but finding some new leaders for 2008 to pick up the ball and run with it will help me calm down too. Now I'm ranting! o_0
Bump!
Thank you !!
Thank you Bump.
Wow! I want to shout this story from the rooftops!
This is some powerful stuff and some very sweet images. Thank you, kristinn. God bless you Gold Star families.
D
Actually they are, from left to right, a mobile anti-aircraft cannon, probably a 57mm, a tank, and an armored personnel carrier.
The sad thing is, these folks will probably be attacked by the Turks, when the Dems cut off funding for the war farther south. The Turks will use the ensuing chaos, again farther south, as an excuse to eliminate a free Kurdistan.
That is correct. The Kurds, those under the no fly zone, have been more or less free of Saddam since the first Gulf war, but should Iraq split into three, or even two, parts, and the US leave the area, these folks can expect the face the much larger, Turkish army. It won't be pretty.
Courtesy ping!
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