"I just found out a friend was murdered." Director of the Red Crescent

[anarchy1999]

http://www.empirenotes.org/

April 16, 2:40 pm EST. Baghdad, Iraq -- I just found out that a friend I made on my first trip to Iraq, Barzan Ahmed, was murdered along with his wife. He was Kurdish, director of the Red Crescent from Erbil. He had kindly driven down from Amman to Baghdad with us, which we all found very helpful since we couldn't speak Arabic.

He was murdered in Erbil. In general, northern Iraq has much more law and order than the rest of the country (because the Kurdish peshmerga, not the Americans, are responsible for keeping order), but massive instability just to the south can't help causing problems in the north as well.

I spoke at length with Barzan on our trip down. He was an example of a very common phenomenon -- even those who supported the invasion never believed in the good intentions of the United States. He was happy about the war, and used the word "liberation." He characterized resistance (in January -- the situation is very different now) as terrorists. But when I asked him about U.S. intentions, he was very clear. He said, "We remember 1975" -- the first time the United States betrayed the Kurds. It had, largely through the Shah of Iran, used them to stir up trouble against the Iraqi government (under Saddam Hussein and Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr), which had nationalized its oil in 1972 and signed a friendship pact with the Soviet Union. But with the signing of the 1975 Algiers accord settling the boundary between Iraq and Iran, the Shah pulled the plug and the United States abandoned the Kurds as well. When asked about this in congressional hearings, Henry Kissinger said, "Covert action shouldn't be confused with missionary work."

When I asked Barzan why the US didn't stop looting of government buildings, stealing of electrical wiring, destructions of ancient artifacts, and so much more, he mentioned the fact that they protected the Oil Ministry and said, "They only care about the oil. The rest is not their problem." And he was a partisan of the Americans.

[aquart]

1. More proof that criminal Kissinger was also stupid and dangerous.

It never occurred to him that that betrayal would cost us in the future? Or that it's better to leave grateful admirers than bitter victims?

Is there any Republican who can reason past B?

I am very sorry that a fine Kurdish gentleman and his wife were killed. I met such a man once. I have been pro-Kurd ever since.

[anarchy1999]

2. My heart is breaking. The person posting these blogs I know personally.

We are all at our wits end. We know Rahul is where he is supposed to be, but that does not make any of us that know him feel more comfortable.

From what he writes every day, especially last weekend when he made the trip into Fallujah, I know there are pieces of him that will never be whole again. There are so many pieces of this country and of these people that have been damaged in some way over the course of the last 30 years from our support of Saddam and then our condemnation (sp?) of Saddam, we will never be able to make it be right.

God may they please forgive us. Personally, I do not think this nation, the US, is "Blessed". If this is to be blessed, then what happens when we are not blessed any more? How much worse can it be? The country with the most WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION is the US. And we thrive on selling our state of the art, WMD's, throughout the world. We have much to be proud of, don't we?

WE WERE WARNED. Eisenhower in his farewell speech to the nation warned of the "military, industrial complex". We did not listen, our parents did not hear, our grandparents, well they went to sleep.

And here we are!