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| Iraq |
| US-KDP ties unharmed |
| 2003-04-08 |
| Spokesman of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) said Monday that killing of 18 KDP combatants during the recent US air attack on his party's positions has no effect on the existing relations between KDP and Washington. Al-Jazeera television network Monday night quoted Hooshyar Zibari as saying that a full coordination exists between the KDP and US forces in northern Iraq. All operations in northern front are carried out jointly by the American and Kurdish forces, he said adding, ''we have repeatedly announced that we will not take any measure or make any activity in the region separately." Accidents happen. Getting rid of Sammy is more important than recriminations. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 Still, this is regrettable. Rather than saying that a full coordination exists between the KDP and US forces in northern Iraq., they should be saying that they will strive for greater coordination between KDP and US forces. At the same time, this DOES seem to indicate the existence of Kurdish intelligence considerably better than what we find in some places of the West: The Canadian Broadcasting Company aired a documentary trying to pin the ultimate blame for the gassing of the Kurds on the United States for selling agricultural spraying helicopters to Iraq, who converted them to deliver chemical WMD. The Kurds know the origin of the Helicopters too, but have enough moral sense to know that Sammy and co were to blame, not the United States. They'd be whistling a different tune, obviously, if the United States did all this deliberately and with intent. I'd credit the Good character and integrity of our Special Forces that went initially into North Iraq to work with the Kurds. The Kurds know that these guys are the meanest, nastiest, sneakiest fighters we have, and if they come across as straight up, I-won't-stab-you-in-the-back types, then the kurds will know that the US Military doesn't mean them ill. (The State Department, on the other hand, is a different story. I believe that, if the Kurds had a say, Immediate Post-Iraq governance would be military, not civilian, for a long while.) I'm sure the SF trooper involved got on the horn after this attack to "discuss it" with the higher ups. I'm sure he had a Kurd Laison with him, overhearing him. I'm sure that Kurd told Zibari what he heard. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-04-08 10:12:02 |