Kurds are people too

Most know this often quoted line: be careful because you may get what you asked for

Let’s start with the Kurds. They should have their own country, but they don’t thanks to British and Russian diplomats last century. This can apply also to ideas such as Baluchistan and even what is called in today’s press Waziristan. More to come on these later in this post.

Let’s deal with what has resulted. In American terms, let’s deal with reality. The Kurds are a very decent tribe and people more like the best part that we Americans got from our European ancestors. They also ended up in their part of the world, which includes parts of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. But they are a tribe with objectives, often anti-arab. OK, so far. But if you are a US Marine as part of the western occupation of northern Iraq after Desert Storm, you know the Kurds will try to trick you into shooting artillery into the Iraqi’s. One of the leaders then was a Marine named Jones, who later the SecDef selected to be the first Marine to lead NATO. But I digress. There is another point of view vis-à-vis the Kurds, if you are a Turk. Turkey has a military draft, and Kurds who are also Turkish citizens, are routinely drafted. The notable point is that this group is routinely assigned away from the Kurdish areas, including the border area with Iraq.

Let me continue. The frustration over blaming the failure to capture Bin Laden is well deserved, up to a point, especially those who bad mouth the leader of Pakistan. Allegedly, Bin Laden is hiding in the border area know by many names. In the western press I think it is called Waziristan. But do your history, and one may find that a Brit fellow by the name of Durand using a paper map did a “line” about 1921 that divided the Pashtuns in just the area that Bin Laden is hiding in. Of course, the locals did not get the word, and even if they did, they didn’t and don’t care what some Brit diplomat did in 1921.

For the most bellicose of my fellow citizens who say send in the special forces or Marines, I say, you go. The other side is not so stupid when they see I look “different”. It is not an easy world. But given the political priorities, they will go. Unfortunately, the bad guys are not cooperating. And maybe the President of Pakistan is not as dumb as the western press reports.