For a few years now off and on, I have been corresponding on yahoo with a young girl in her mid 20s from Kurdish Iraq. She is a college student in Erbil, Ive spoken with her on the phone, Ive seen her on webcam once or twice, things have been very friendly. She is a happy, optimistic, sweet and engaging girl very interested in american culture and the world in general, it is in fact clear to me she is headed towards coming to America at some point (not for anything involving me) for a career. She is Kurdish, she has seem very bad times under Saddam, and when we invaded in 2003, she was ecstatic. In 2003 she was wild-eyed about the prospect of a "free and democratic KURDISTAN".
I stress Kurdistan.
She was 100% under the impression we would be giving her , her own country, where Arabs and Persians no longer held sway over her people. She was apparently being told this by everyone in her community. Who were in turn being "spoonfed" these ideas by our forces in the regions. I KNEW they were lieing
I did my best to explain to her, that W.'s plan was to keep Iraq one country, that any talks of Kurdish independence and protection from turkey were complete and total illusion, that her people were just being told this to placate them. She swore that was not the case, she was convinced we were there to liberate Kurdistan.
I told her "watch over time, we will side with Turkey, and your people once again will be oppressed just as under Saddam, I wish this were not true but I know our government".
This week it has all come to pass.
We will call Kurdish independence seekers "terrorists" and proceed to wipe out as big a percentage of their population as need be to press the remainder into submission. Perhaps we will not commit genocide against these people (who btw have proven themselves to be the most progressive and peaceful actors in this whole conflict), but we will certainly take advantage of them in all the meaningful ways.
Natural Resource rape?check taxes?Check Utilize them as military pawns?check
We will take them for everything they have, to try and appease the Turks , the Arabs, and the Persians; because "squeaky wheel gets the grease"
Im disgusted. This is China and Tibet all over again. These people have pulled together out of a war/invasion a rather stable and productive society and we're going to enslave it just because they don't go along with "war war war" all the time.
I cry for my friend in Erbil, I have not spoken to her in a few months , but I know when I do, it will not be a positive exchange.