"GOOD" KURDS, "BAD" KURDS, AND A BARREL

"They are Kurds. They have a culture, already, and it is 6,000 years old. Who the hell are we to tell them what to do? We owe the Kurds, they do not owe us a damn thing at all."
~ Mike Tucker.

There is an interesting interview at The American Spectator with Mike Tucker, who wrote Hell is Over: Voices of the Kurds after Saddam--a good read, by the way, if you want to know what life has been like for the Başûrî Kurds in the last few decades.

If you haven't read the book, at least give the interview the few minutes' time it will take you to read it. Mike Tucker has some important things to say about fighting radical Islam, and he describes how the Başûrî go about it.

The problem that I have with Mike Tucker, and all those who divide Kurds into "good" and "bad" camps, is that for all of their enthusiasm and admiration for the Başûrî, they are never able to see that, in North Kurdistan, there is oppression of the world's majority of Kurds that is, in many respects, worse than the oppression suffered by the Başûrî. When the Başûrî rightly resist their oppression, and take up arms against it, they are heroes to Mike Tucker and the other admirers of Kurds. But when the Kurds under Turkish oppression do the same, they are labeled by the same crowd as "terrorists."

The American Delta Forces and Special Forces that Tucker says have learned counter-terrorism techniques from the Başûrî, are the same American forces who helped to establish, organize, and train the Turkish Ozel Harp Dairesi (Special Warfare Department) and Ozel Timler/Ozel Hareket Timler (Special Teams). The creatures that inhabit the dark netherworld of Turkish special warfare and special teams, are virulent in their hatred of Kurds and all things Kurdish. In fact, those creatures who become members of this department are chosen for their extreme racism. It's difficult to know to whom these creatures are more devoted--to Alparslan Turkes or Mustafa Kemal . . . or Fethullah Gulen.

Check Serdar Çelik, and a Desmond Fernandes and Iskender Ozden article for more on that. DHKC also published information on that a while ago, here and here.

So, tell me, really, who are the terrorists?

With the knowledge of the atrocities committed against the Kurdish people by the American-trained Special Warfare Department, and with the knowledge that at least as many Kurdish villages were destroyed by America's ally, the Ankara regime, with a resulting 3 to 4 million Kurds forcibly displaced and living in utter poverty at this very moment; with the knowledge that 40,000 Kurds were murdered by America's ally in the recent dirty war alone, and not counting the dead in 19 previous serhildan's against the Turkish oppressor, I find the following quote from the interview to be highly ironic:

The Kurds have far more right to independence than we did in 1775. We didn't lose 180,000 American colonists to chemical weapons and massacres, and we denied fellow Americans -- blacks, women and Native American Indians -- basic human rights for many years after we won our freedom from the British.

The Kurds earned their right to independence in fighting Baathist fascism for many, many years. They fought with their hearts and souls, with everything they had, against one of the most brutal dictatorships in the history of mankind. They did not fight for a unity government of Iraq, they did not fight for Iraq at all. They are Kurds. They have a culture, already, and it is 6,000 years old. Who the hell are we to tell them what to do? We owe the Kurds, they do not owe us a damn thing at all. The American record, over the last 36 years, in dealing with the Kurds of Iraq is largely encompassed by three words: shame and disgrace. If we have any common sense as a nation and a people, and any sense of honor whatsoever, we will recognize just how much suffering realpolitik has caused both in Kurdistan and around the world, banish realpolitik to the ash heaps of history, and embrace Kurdish independence.

What is the difference between Ba'athist fascism and Turkish fascism, except that one no longer exists while the other remains and enjoys the full, unqualified support of the United States? How is the 6,000-year old Kurdish culture in the south any different from the 6,000-year old Kurdish culture in the north?

How is America's record over the last 54 years (since Turkey became a NATO partner), in dealing with Kurds under Turkish occupation any less shameful or disgraceful than it's dealings with the Kurds under Iraqi occupation? Another word should be added to describe America's dealings with the Kurds under Turkish occupation: silence. In this case silence has aided genocide--both literally and culturally. The continuing oppression of the Kurds in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan is the textbook case of American realpolitik, the practice of politics devoid of all idealism, all sentimental illusions, and all morality.

After all, covert action should not be confused with missionary work, right?

American realpolitik has caused immense suffering in all of Kurdistan, not just that little portion of real estate to the south, that Americans mistake for all of Kurdistan, and gaining a sense of honor on this score requires more than simple recognition; it requires that America act to end the policies of realpolitik. Until we see concrete steps taken, on the ground, in real time, there is no point in acting as if America were an ally, unless America can be used to further Kurdish interests. The same policy should be applied to all others, as well.

And that means that if Kurds have an "incredibly deep, broad and effective human intelligence network in all Iraq," as well as in other places of interest, not a single piece of that intelligence should be shared unless the price paid for it is substantial, and serves Kurdish interests alone. Will American interests be jeopardized in the meantime? Will more Americans have to die because the US refuses to cooperate? If so, that's too bad, but it's a result of one or more of the following: stupidity, arrogance, or a high threshold of pain.

In the vernacular, this is known as "having someone over a barrel."

It's time that realpolitik became a two-way street.