This Isn't The 1st Time The US Abandoned The Kurds; 30 Million Population In 6 Countries

[appalachiablue]

- This Isn't The First Time The US Has Abandoned The Kurds,- by Stephen Zunes, Truthout, Oct. 10, 2019.

President Trump’s decision to give a green light for a Turkish invasion of Kurdish-populated regions of northern Syria has been faced with swift bipartisan opposition. Apparently, no one in the diplomatic, military or intelligence community — much less the leadership of the self-governing Kurdish enclave the U.S. has armed and supported and is now under siege — was consulted beforehand. U.S. troops should indeed be withdrawn from Syria, but the U.S. soldiers removed from the border area where Turkish forces are now attacking are not being sent home, and instead are simply being redeployed elsewhere in northeastern Syria.

..What many of the commentators are ignoring is that this is hardly the first time the United States has goaded Kurds to fight and then abandoned them to slaughter. The Kurds are a nation of more than 30 million people divided among six countries, primarily in what is now northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey, with smaller numbers in northeastern Syria, northwestern Iran and the Caucasus. They are the world’s largest nation without a state of their own. Their struggle for self-determination has been hampered by the sometimes-bitter rivalry between competing nationalist groups, some of which have been used as pawns by regional powers as well as by the United States.



-- Syrian Arab and Kurdish civilians arrive to Hassakeh city after fleeing following Turkish bombardment of Syria's northeastern towns along the Turkish border on Oct. 10, 2019.

At the 1919 Versailles Conference, in which the victorious allies of World War I were carving up the remnants of the Ottoman Empire, President Woodrow Wilson unsuccessfully pushed for the establishment of an independent Kurdistan. Since that time, however, U.S. policy toward the Kurds has been far less supportive and often cynically opportunistic.

[1970s] For example, in the mid-1970s, in conjunction with the dictatorial Shah of Iran, the United States goaded Iraqi Kurds into launching an armed uprising against the then left-leaning Iraqi government with the promise of continued military support. However, the United States abandoned them precipitously as part of an agreement with the Baghdad regime for a territorial compromise favorable to Iran regarding the Shatt al-Arab waterway. Suddenly without supply lines to obtain the necessary equipment to defend themselves, the Iraqi army marched into Kurdish areas and thousands were slaughtered. Then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger dismissed concerns about the humanitarian consequences of this betrayal by saying, “Covert action should not be confused with missionary work.”

[1980s] The uprising by Iraqi Kurds against the central government in Baghdad resumed in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq War, led by guerrillas of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Strong Iranian support for the PUK made virtually all Kurds potential traitors in the eyes of Saddam Hussein’s regime, which responded with brutal repression. In the latter part of the decade, in what became known as the Anfal campaign, as many as 4,000 Kurdish villages were destroyed, more than 100,000 Kurdish civilians were killed and more than 1 million Iraqi Kurds — nearly one-quarter of the Iraqi Kurdish population — were displaced.

Despite this, the United States increased its support for Hussein’s regime during this period...
More, https://truthout.org/articles/this-isnt-the-first-time-the-us-has-abandoned-the-kurds/



-- Syrian Arab and Kurdish civilians flee amid Turkish bombardment on Syria's northeastern town of Ras al-Ain in the Hasakeh province along the Turkish border on Oct. 9, 2019.

[Wellstone ruled]

1. What is taught in our School Systems today?

How many Kids even no where these Countries are,more or less what their History is. If it ain't on their damn Phone,forget about it. Candy Crush is more important. And as far as their Parents,most fall in this same I don't no group.

[pangaia]

3. How many ADULTS even know where these Countries are, ?

[appalachiablue]

4. The decline in the educational level of Americans is apparent for 2 generations.

Keep the population dumb and docile, the hard right's plan along with steady mass amounts of divisive con propaganda.

[Wellstone ruled]

5. Certain History and

Geography points were stripped out of many Text books simply because the State of Texas is the largest buyer of Books and the Texas State Government sought to strip out anything and everything that conflicted with their view of History or Geography.

[pangaia]

7. very few people know this....

[Wellstone ruled]

8. This found out from a Neighbor in

the mid 70's who sold School Text Books. We did a Comparison with old Text books we had bought at a Rummage Sale that were Text Books from the Wisconsin School Systems dated 1950's.

Total mind blow.

[pangaia]

2. Excuse me, but it wasn't just the '1970s and 1980s.'

Specifically, notice was a republicans who was in the presidential high chair when these events occurred... betrayal, of course, is the correct word...

[appalachiablue]

6. Absolutely, GOP execs. admins: Nixon & the Shah, Reagan...

[Igel]

11. Yes.

And the period of "increased support" in the '80s was during the Iraq-Iran war, where "anybody but Iran" was preferred.

Part of the reason for the Iraq oppression of the Kurds was Iranian support for their struggle--helping to weaken and break up Iraq was the goal.

Notice that it was also after the incident in Halabja that there was a no-fly zone set up, in 1991.

It's a ticklish situation. I've long thought the US should rip off the band-aid and just call for redrawing the borders with a Kurdistan. Iran would lose territory and not gain any. Iraq might could gain from Khuzestan. Some Sunni Arab areas of western Iraq fit in better with Syria, and there are areas in western and southern Syria best merged with Lebanon (which poses its own problems) or Jordan.

Notice, however, that Iran would rather go to war than lose part of its old empire. And the other countries, among them US allies, would be none too pleased (except maybe Jordan, which would only gain).

[pangaia]

12. HUH !! Could you explain that again??

That's more complicated then the NFL playoff possibilities..



I Will check out the incident in Halabja.. It is not immediately familiar to me.

Thanks

[pbmus]

9. It's not the first time America has abandoned its allies....

I am a Vietnam vet....remember South Vietnam...thousands were slaughtered...

[appalachiablue]

10. An important and tragic time, thanks for posting.