KurdistanObserver.com
Kurdistan The last Bastion Of US Support, And The US
Government Seems Determined To Destroy It too.
motherjones
By: A former U.S.
official
Dec 17, 2007
The blow back here in Kurdistan is building against the US
government. There are protests and visible anger as the story of the US Air
Force helping the Turks kill Kurds in the Kandil Mountains spreads. My [Kurdish]
colleagues here are headed to an emergency session of the parliament. The entire
[Kurdish] negotiating team left Baghdad and flew back here to attend the
session. People are really upset. The Turks of course are...emphasizing that the
US Air Force was heavily involved in the attack.
The Kurdish theme is one of shock, and betrayal. The Kurds see themselves as the
only true friend of the Americans in the region, and the only part of Iraq that
is working, and are especially hurt by the attack. The US has never killed Kurds
deliberately before. We killed a lot of them in the war by accident and
recklessness, which [the Kurds] managed to rationalize away, but never on
purpose. We are at a loss to understand the [US government] thinking on
supporting this operation.
The attack (and the USG help for it) is viewed [by the Kurds] as a deliberate
retaliation against them by the USG, because the [Kurdish Regional Government]
won't fold on the issues that [U.S. Ambassador Ryan] Crocker keeps pressing them
about during the talks in Baghdad.
The Kurds are holding firm on Article 140 (the constitutional provision that
would render oil-rich Kirkuk a Kurdish area), the revenue sharing law, and the
oil law, and [Kurds are saying that] Crocker said to Nichervan [Barsani, a
Kurdish leader,] "we might just let, or even encourage the Turks to come into
northern Iraq to strike at the PKK," [the Kurdistan Workers' Party, a separatist
group]....
The theme taking shape is since the Kurds won't fold on all the US demands for
the Kurds to violate their own constitution, the USG will punish them. It is a
shocking turn of events. [The Kurdish region] is the last bastion of US support,
and the USG seems determined to destroy this too. Every issue the Kurds are
standing firm on, are clearly supported by the Iraqi constitution. The USG can't
get the Iranian puppet government of Maliki to do much of anything, so they put
pressure on their friends [the Kurds] to move the bar of success, and violate
the very constitutional tenets that the USG insisted be written into the Iraqi
constitution.
The Kurdish people have viewed [the US Air Force] for 17 years as their
protector from Saddam and external aggression, [and] now [see it] as an
instrument to be feared, collaborating with the Turks. [This] is very troubling.
The Turks are reveling in this turn of events. They have tried since the first
Gulf war to impede or rupture the relationship of the US with the Kurds. Since
March of '03, they have redoubled their efforts. This is a huge success for the
Turks. They have finally succeeded in getting the US with them, killing Kurds.
The key factor in the air strike is what they hit. It wasn't a collection of PKK
fighters, it was a series of small mountain villages, widely disbursed, some a
much as 70 kilometers inside Kurdistan. The people killed and wounded were
villagers, not PKK fighters or support people. Children were injured and they
flattened a school. The USG should be savaged in the media for this support.
The Turks used F-16s for 2 hours between 0200 and 0400, aided by US Awacs, and
flattened a series of small villages in the Khandil Mountain area. As of early
today, there are 3 confirmed dead (one man, two women), and 8 wounded (four
adults, four children), but two of the villages have not reported back yet. My
details come from my Kurdish colleagues who are at the scene. They called in the
report. The Turks flattened a series of small villages ranging between 20 and 70
kilometers inside Iraqi Kurdistan. After the initial air bombardment, they
waited for people to go back to the area, then attacked again.
After about 90 minutes of F-16 attacks, they began a systematic artillery
shelling pattern on the villages. The following villages were completely
leveled: Kubton, Ramkon, Konezereh, Panjekhah, Lau'ge, Ashkolkha, Souradeh,
Enzeh, and Kalahtoukan.
A lot of people are homeless, and angry, but the PKK didn't lose a man....This
strike was designed to punish the KRG and terrorize the local Kurdish
population. The US Air Force could never have gotten permission to do a strike
like this on their own, so why is it ok to do it WITH the Turks?
