To Prevent Genocide and Support Free Kurdistan

We are gratified that our vacationing president has finally been moved to airlift supplies to thousands of Yezadi Christians, driven to a hot, bare mountaintop  by ISIS.  Let us also thank him for air support and at least small arms to the heroic Kurds, the only Iraqi, ethnic force now fighting ISIS. Of course they need the kind of advanced U.S weaponry  ISIS stole from the Iraqis.

 More must be done to protect our national security, but at least it’s a start in correcting the mistakes of presidents past.  Bush ’41 encouraged the Kurds (like the Shia) to take up arms against Saddam after the 1981 Gulf War, yet he did not come to their aid and thousands were slaughtered. In 1996, Bush ’43 and his National Security Advisor, Condi Rice, having gotten us into Iraq War II on  the false pretext of WMD, rejected the proposal to build a semi-Independent Kurdistan. But there´s enough blame on both parties to go around. We must now turn the pinprick attacks against ISIS into a large offensive to crush them. Moreover, our attacks should be conducted not just from far away navy aircrafts, but from an airbase we must build in Kurdistan.

In 1996, an alternative and powerful solution to the Iraqi quagmire was offered by then Senator Joe Biden, and former CFR president , Leslie Gelb. They proposed Iraq´s  partition into 3 separate zones for Kurds, Shia and Sunnis.  However, Bush´s Secretary of State, Condi Rice, rejected this as “radical” and “spectacularly bad.” In her memoir, “No Higher Honor,”, she also recalled, “I really felt good about [shia] Nouri Malaki.” Unfortunately, Condi is  now seeking higher honor even as  Malaki´s sabotage of Iraq democratic process is holding up the war against ISIS. When Biden became Vice President of Obama´s administration, his and Gelb´s proposal was also rejected by Obama. Another candidate for higher honor in 2016, Hillary Clinton, like Bush and Rice, took a decidedly hawkish stance on Iraq. But since then, she has repeatedly changed her stance with the political winds of two presidential campaigns.

Obviously, Biden and Gelb were right. Had we listened to them, we could have built a significant actor in the Middle East, one with  a  federal structure of which semi-independent Kurdistan was part. It could have directly received our arms. The latest development shows that the centralized state of Iraq created, in the heyday of colonialism, was an artificial creation that could not withstand the attacks of Muslim terrorists.

The liberation of the Kurds and Yezidi  Christians whom they protect, could be a turning point in the worldwide struggle against Islamist fascism, one that is happening not only in Iraq, but also in other parts of the Moslem world.  The rise of terrorist caliphates from Russia´s Chechnya to Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan,  Libya  and Nigeria, and the likelihood of an eventual attack against America, must finally wake the West up.   We must rally the nations willing to fight with us against the new Huns threatening genocides against Christians and Jews. Their stated objective is to hoist their black flag in the White House.    

Finally, we should  give some thought to involving Russian President Vladimir Putin. An authoritarian leader, he is nevertheless a defender of Christians in the Middle East. and concern about rise Muslim fundamentalism in the Russian heartland. Moreover for decades, Russia has had close relations with Kurdistan liberation movements and could be of help. Perhaps the severe crisis may present new opportunities for a negotiated solution of the Ukraine conflict, providing  for its neutrality as well as autonomy in its eastern part, and Putin´s acceptance of a democratic, neutral neighbor.

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