DINO ALEC

Give the Kurds their own state

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/straighttalk/archives/2014/09/20140904-165709.html

4:57 pm, September 4th, 2014

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DINO ALEC - Give the Kurds their own state

Kurdish Peshmerga forces celebrate as they take control of Sulaiman Pek from the Islamic State militants, in the northwest of Tikrit city September 1, 2014.

Credits: REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal

DINO ALEC | SUN NEWS NETWORK

While President Obama voices Washington's abject lack of a strategy to fight the growing threat from the Islamic State, the proud Kurdish Peshmerga forces are spilling their blood to keep their lands safe from barbarism.

The Kurds don't have the luxury of issuing vapid press releases addressing concern for the terrorist threat; the danger is at their doorstep and their people are targets every day.

Several Western and Arab nations have dispatched supplies and arms to the Peshmerga forces, a useful form of assistance in the short term.

The best form of help we can give the Kurds is to materialize a dream they have been denied for many centuries: their own independent country.

Independence would create a much needed and dependable Western ally in an unsafe, unstable neighbourhood at a time when we need reliable friends the most.

Iraqi Kurdistan, which already enjoys significant autonomy and de-facto self-rule would be a wealthy, stable, and safe country replete with notable oil and natural gas revenues.

The Kurds practice strong, healthy democracy and were fervent supporters of the Western force that dismantled Saddam Hussein's tyrannical regime in 2003; the same regime which gassed tens of thousands of innocent Kurds.

Let us not forget that the Kurdish people have been marginalized and mistreated by their neighbours for hundreds of years.

There is a famous Kurdish saying: "Our only friends are the mountains."

At least 35 million Kurds live in the Middle East. The majority are settled in areas spanning a large landmass across southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria and northern Iraq.

Portions of Iran's north and northwesten regions are also home to many Kurds.

An independent Kurdistan won't be easy to create, our NATO allies in Turkey have been fighting Kurdish self-determination for decades, it will also seriously antagonize the Iranians.

Regardless of views in Ankara and Tehran, the growingly confident Kurdish people are too numerous and too determined to be perpetually denied the reality of their own self-determination - they will eventually have their own state, one way or another.

The West is responsible for many of the present realities on the ground in Iraq.

That it still exists in its current form is a testament to the tenacity of the Iraqi people and the enormous foreign resources invested in keeping the country afloat.

The inevitable break up of Iraq is a reality that the West will have to accept as tensions between Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds rise by the day.

An independent Kurdistan would form a direct challenge to the Islamic State while further weakening Bashar-al Assad's claims over northern Syria.

If the West still believes in freedom, democracy, and national self-determination it should help the Kurdish people find a way to found their own independent country.