Comments on: The Muftis of Kurdistan

By: Deas

Deas — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 08:05:34 +0000

Nice discussion, but what has any ot this to do with “Defense Tech”?

By: Christopher Karel

Christopher Karel — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 20:00:30 +0000

You have to admit, the Mufti’s have a very solid argument. I’ve yet to hear a single negative thing said about the Kurds. They seem to have fiercely independant streak that resonates well with Americans. And quite frankly, why *shouldn’t* they have their own nation? Why on earth should we stick with the arbitrary national bounderies drawn after WWI and the collapse of European colonialism?
Yes, this would probably come to war. Turkey, certainly, would consider this a nightmare scenario — they wouldn’t help out in OIF out of fear of just that result. But the only thing keeping the Kurds from truely ruling themselves is just blatant appeasement. If they were to have their own state, then other nations would then lose some small section of land/wealth/power, and get pissy. As mentioned, the end result would be an offensive war to prevent it. Could you imagine if the United States had passed up declaring independance because they were afraid Britain would declare war?!?
The US had to go at it almost completely alone for their independance war. (Big ups to France for the help on that one) We are in a position to provide support to a similar Kurdish endeavor. If you believe we have a moral imperative to bring freedom to Iraqi’s, there’s a similar argument to be made for supporting general Kurdish freedom.
–Christopher Karel

By: James

James — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 17:41:15 +0000

It’s been the dream of the Kurds since…well, at least the Mongol invasions. Probably around a thousand years or so. Remember the Vietnamese spent a thousand years fighting the Chinese for independence. I think they will continue to push the envelope of “federalism” and work the edges of the problem until they see their chance and make a break for it.
Many Kurds opposed the US invasion because they were afraid of losing what they had gained. Now they are much more optimistic. I’m actually sympathetic to them but there’s no question that when civil war comes to Iraq, Kurdish nationalism will be one of the causes. And this is why I opposed the war: a thousand years of history were compressed into “talking points” that were thrown around by dilettantes who were only interested in Iraq as it related to Israel.
Israel got rid of Saddam but now runs the risk of combining Iraq’s Shiite population with Iran’s. Now that country would be an Islamic great power, though not the one Osama dreams of…he’ll be back on our side if that happens.