Date: 11 June 2004

Source:KDP website

• By RALPH PETERS

THE United States has a reputation for rewarding its enemies, while taking our friends for granted. It's not very reassuring to potential allies. Now we're proving yet again that we can't be trusted.

In a shortsighted effort to please a fundamentalist who will never be our friend, the Bush administration caved in to the demands of the Shi'a Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani to win his acquiescence to this week's U.N. resolution. The essence of Sistani's position was that the Kurds had to be stripped of their ability to make a legal defense of their civil rights, security and liberty in the new, "free" Iraq.

Under terms agreed to by all of Iraq's ethnic and religious groups in March, an interim constitution gave the Kurds a ballot-box veto over oppressive new laws. It was a simple democratic safeguard. But with Washington playing beat-the-clock, Sistani refused to support the U.N. resolution unless all reference to the interim constitution was dropped.

We gave Sistani everything he wanted, as well as pandering to Iraq's Sunni Arabs — who massacred the Kurds just over a decade ago.

The Kurds received neither of the top positions in the new government. Their best man, Dr. Barham Salih, was given a token job without defined responsibilities. Iraq's Arabs would control the country's future.

Now the Kurds warn that they might not join the new Baghdad government. Our self-righteous diplomats are aghast. But what if we were Kurds? Would we entrust the future of our families to those who did their best to wipe our people from the face of the earth?

What will we do, should the Kurds refuse to bow to Arab tyranny? Send in our troops to enslave them in the name of Allah the Merciful and the agents of Tehran?

Sistani didn't make this crisis. We did. Through our spinelessness and impatience.

The Kurds supported us during the war. They support us even now. The Kurdish regions of Iraq are the only peaceful, law-abiding, democratic territories in the country — complete with women's rights, secular education and true religious freedom (including the freedom not to live according to the dictates of bitter old men in turbans).

Kurdistan is the living, breathing model of what we claim we wish for the Middle East. And we're handing it over to brutal, backward bullies.

For the sake of quiet until the November elections, as well as to please the decayed Arab regimes in the neighborhood, we've rewarded Iraq's Arabs, who never tire of complaining about America — and who kill our troops whenever they get the chance.

Our position is immoral, vicious and stupid. And — for all the Realpolitikers out there — counterproductive. Consider the messages we're sending to the Middle East and beyond:

• America can't be trusted. No matter what you do for Washington, you can't count on the United States in your hour of need.
• America cares only about power and influence, not about democracy, human rights or minority rights. Washington's rhetoric means nothing.
• America can be bullied. Washington doesn't have the stomach for a real fight, but will give in to those who make the gravest threats.
• Since America doesn't care about freedom for its Kurdish allies, the invasion of Iraq was only about oil, after all.

It doesn't matter if some of these perceptions aren't true. Perception trumps reality. We pretend we're making peace, but we're only making a mess.

Our diplomats imagine they're playing a deep game. But they're playing checkers while our enemies play chess. Sistani and even carnival-midway touts like Ahmed Chalabi prance around us while we stand there with our eyes closed, counting to 100. They toss us a piece of licorice while they run away with the candy store.

When Washington chooses short-term political gains over long-term strategic advantage, we repeat our worst past errors, from buttressing the Shah of Iran to supporting Saddam Hussein. Appeasement isn't a strategy. Quiet isn't peace. Iraq was quiet under the old regime.

What about freedom?

_________________________

Ralph Peters is the author of Beyond Baghdad: Postmodern War and Peace.

_______________________

browse our complete news archive