I have waffled on what to do about Iraq and Saddam Hussein, but an interesting report from the Canadian TV network, CBC, shed some interesting light.
In the report, it visited the Kurdish area of Iraq, which, since the institution of the "No-Fly" zones, has become completely autonomous from the rest of Iraq, and, actually, has installed a democracy, which has relatively flourished for the last decade. In it, it describes the atrocities Saddam Hussein committed against the Kurds, namely genocide.
Why, perhaps, this report is never reported in America is that the Kurds are very critical of how the Gulf War was handled. Originally, the Kurds were supportive, but, as the Gulf War ended, not only did Bush, Sr. leave Hussein in power, but he left him with conventional weaponry. Immediately after the Gulf War, Hussein punished the Kurds by air strikes and troop advances, thus creating the origins for the U.N. instituted "No-Fly" zones. Since then, the Kurds have had a shaky autonomous government, one that will be inevitably destroyed if the sanctions are lifted against Iraq.
Most interestingly, the CBC report showed oil trucks lined up from Turkey, where Hussein circumvents sanctions and earns approximately $10 million a day from illegal oil shipments. Iraqi Kurdistan, interestingly enough, makes about a million of that in taxing them. Also, it is reported from Iraqi Kurdistan that they believe Al-Qaeda is busy regrouping in Northern Iran, where Al-Qaeda declared "jihad" against the Kurdish democracy, leaving scores of dead and mutilated Kurds in the border area.
I am indeed wary of war, but I am further convinced that leaving Iraq and Iran go would be a dangerous prospect.
Thoughts?
Melon
In the report, it visited the Kurdish area of Iraq, which, since the institution of the "No-Fly" zones, has become completely autonomous from the rest of Iraq, and, actually, has installed a democracy, which has relatively flourished for the last decade. In it, it describes the atrocities Saddam Hussein committed against the Kurds, namely genocide.
Why, perhaps, this report is never reported in America is that the Kurds are very critical of how the Gulf War was handled. Originally, the Kurds were supportive, but, as the Gulf War ended, not only did Bush, Sr. leave Hussein in power, but he left him with conventional weaponry. Immediately after the Gulf War, Hussein punished the Kurds by air strikes and troop advances, thus creating the origins for the U.N. instituted "No-Fly" zones. Since then, the Kurds have had a shaky autonomous government, one that will be inevitably destroyed if the sanctions are lifted against Iraq.
Most interestingly, the CBC report showed oil trucks lined up from Turkey, where Hussein circumvents sanctions and earns approximately $10 million a day from illegal oil shipments. Iraqi Kurdistan, interestingly enough, makes about a million of that in taxing them. Also, it is reported from Iraqi Kurdistan that they believe Al-Qaeda is busy regrouping in Northern Iran, where Al-Qaeda declared "jihad" against the Kurdish democracy, leaving scores of dead and mutilated Kurds in the border area.
I am indeed wary of war, but I am further convinced that leaving Iraq and Iran go would be a dangerous prospect.
Thoughts?
Melon