It was Christopher Hitchens who educated me on the plight of the Kurds. He recounted with great admiration the people he met during the Gulf War in 'Hitch-22', his memoir that includes many tales of his travels to Iraq and relationships built with the Kurdish people. Without his recommendation I might never have read the two great works of Kanan Makiya, "Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq" and "Cruelty and Silence: War, Tyranny, Uprising, and the Arab World".
The Kurdish population has a long and complicated history, one that includes much violence and bloodshed. Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party tried to exterminate them more than once and now it seems Turkey is trying the same thing. BBC News has reported in the article: 'Turkey bombs Iraq hideouts of Kurdish rebels PKK' and many of the related articles show that although we rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein, the Kurds are still in need of protection, much like the Armenians in the early 20th century.
Turkey's descent into pseudo-Islamic theocracy will soon become real, just as it did in Iraq. As Bob Dylan once prophesized, "The Times They Are a Changing". Ahmet Davutoğlu was recently in Washington (Contentions Turkey’s Foreign Minister Bashes Israel as Turkey Slaughters Kurds), and no mention of the sinister bloodshed was mentioned, not even hinted at.
Do we intervene? Do we allow the slaughter of a peaceful people? Do we allow genocide? How much longer will the Kurds, our allies, hold out? Is the Obama administration even aware?
This is the prelude to the end of the world...do what you can while you have a chance...
Also check out Quil Lawrence's 'Invisible Nation', another Hitchens recommendation.
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