As a Naval Officer, you learn early on the fine balance between your duties to protect your fellow Americans and the responsibilities you assume for the rest of the world’s safety. They do not always synch up in perfect harmony. In a recent editorial on BloombergView, Jeffrey Goldberg discusses the present state of affairs in Northern Iraq and the uncertain future of its Kurdish population. With the imperative, “Obama, Free Iraq’s Kurds”, Goldberg makes an appeal on behalf of the members of the largest stateless nation on the planet, a vulnerable, regional and ethnic minority population that exceeds six million.
In light of the recent activities by ISIS across Iraq, Goldberg advocates for military intervention by the U.S. to protect the Kurds from extremist threats and establish an independent state they can call home. Aside from the altruistic benefits of freeing an oppressed people, an independent Kurdish state would become a rare ally to the U.S. in a region rife with hostility, according to Goldberg. Though limited to Northern Iraq’s portion of Kurdistan, this hypothetical Kurdish state could embolden neighboring populations in Syria, Turkey, and Iran to seek their own independence and ally themselves with their new standard-bearer. With sufficient help from the U.S., Goldberg argues, the Kurds could finally find their ever-elusive place in the world, a dream deferred since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
The recent steps we’ve taken to provide limited airstrikes to support the Kurds from ISIS are a good start. It would behoove us to take the next steps towards supporting a more broadly independent Kurdish state.
from Don Mathis & Foreign Policy http://ift.tt/1AEHZIT
from http://ift.tt/1oZn3K3
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