“Human rights” and imperial aggression in Iraq
by Thomas Fleming
The Bush administration’s shortsighted approach to foreign policy is nowhere better illustrated than in Kurdistan. Under our auspices, the Kurds have virtually established a state from which they have purged most of the historic http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=1453 community on the trumped up charge that they are Arab invaders sent in by Saddam. After implementing a general program of ethnic cleansing, the Kurds succeeded in making their little satellite state the most peaceful corner of the former Iraq. Under pressure, however, they foolishly accepted refugees from other parts of Iraq; predictably, some of the refugees have brought the war home to Kurdistan, which is beginning to experience roadside bombings and terrorist attacks.
What could be done, ideally, with the Kurds? Many of my Southern friends answer, almost automatically: Guarantee the Kurds the right of secession, and all will be well. As I recently explained, in a speech that antagonized a group of secessionists meeting in http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2092, there is no such thing as a universal political system or principle that applies to all peoples in all situations. For some peoples, monarchy or autocracy may be the best system; for others an oligarchy based on wealth; while for some small-scale societies something like popular government may work, though the history of such experiments is not encouraging. Similarly, secession, although it is often a workable response to oppression, may not be the right answer in all cases. Kosovo Albanians, who invaded the region, oppressed the Christians and burned their churches, though they now constitute the majority, should not be rewarded for their centuries of terrorism, first under the Turks, then under Tito, and now with the encouragement of the “International Community,” that is, the US and its puppets. It is a terrible charge to make against any nation, but the Kurds are the Albanians of the Mideast.The supposed right of secession is a part of the imagined right of self-determination, a fantasy drawn from the absurd political theories of Locke and Rousseau and given immortality by Jefferson’s utterly fatuous platitudes with which he began the Declaration. Applied universally, it means Montenegro–backed by foreign interests–had the right to secede from Yugoslavia, the Brda region on the border with Serbia to secede from Montenegro, and any three-man pro-secession village to secede from the Brda, until the Russian Mafia owned every square inch of the county. To speak of rights, in such circumstances–that is, when American corporations are busily breaking up nations and federations into weak little entities they can exploit–is not only nonsense but dangerous nonsense.
The Kurds are a classic example, where secession–which the anti-Christian US only favors when it hurts Christians–may never work. From the beginning, I warned that the Turks, who have had a bellyfull of the Kurdish PKK’s terrorism, would not be willing to play along. I said repeatedly that the Kurdish government would do little or nothing to repress the PKK or shut down its bases in Iraqi Kurdistan. (Why is Ms Rice saying nothing about Kurdistan’s manifest complicity with the PKK?) Predictably, the PKK has received a shot in the arm from the creation of an autonomous Kurdistan under US auspices and with US support. Now, Kurdistan may be facing a potentially serious invasion from Turkey at a time when the US has completely used up any credibility it ever had with either the Turkish government or the Turkish people. In the worst case, Iran might be drawn in.
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