Article

2006-11-27 Iraq

Kurdish Militia, Iraqi Police Terrorizing Assyrians in North Iraq

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by anonymous5089 2006-11-27 09:07|| || Front Page|| [11130 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Ah... the legendary tolerance of Islam.

Posted by Rob Crawford">Rob Crawford 2006-11-27 09:17|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/] 2006-11-27 09:17|| Front Page Top

#2 Keep in mind that these folks were one of the groups that Saddam used to play power politics with. For much of his reign, they were favored. Christians served in several major roles in the Saddam thuggocracy. So, the whining is somewhat self-serving.

Posted by Chuck Simmins">Chuck Simmins 2006-11-27 10:18|| http://northshorejournal.org]">[http://northshorejournal.org] 2006-11-27 10:18|| Front Page Top

#3 But Kurds are the good guys!

Posted by gromgoru 2006-11-27 10:52|| 2006-11-27 10:52|| Front Page Top

#4 The religion of piss killing off Christians, no MSM story here.

Chuck I have no idea what you are talking about.

Posted by Icerigger 2006-11-27 10:55|| 2006-11-27 10:55|| Front Page Top

#5 Yes, sammy was rather christian friendly, just think of tarik aziz. One more reason why french nationalists really resent the iraq war, because iraqi christians are taking hits from all sides, and are basically being ousted. This is quite true, but I still think this was brewing even when sammy was in power (cf his re-islamization, and the forced conversion law, if a christian converted to the Master Religion, all his relatives had to convert by law of face consequences, which led to a soody-funded campaign of bribery to get paid christians to convert).
In that regard, the US intervention just accelerated the process, and blew the lid off.

Posted by anonymous5089 2006-11-27 11:21|| 2006-11-27 11:21|| Front Page Top

#6 Hum: I am not sure Assyrians (who define themselves as NON arabs) were liked by the panarabist Saddam.

BTW: When a pro-nazi coup toppled pro-British Nuri Said it was two meager battalkions of assyrians who defended the British air base of Habaniyah and routed a five times larger Arab force both tribesmen and regular army. Saddam's sympathies were on the Arab/Nazi side (the complete name of his party was National Socialist Party for Arab Renew) not on the British/Assyrian side.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2006-11-27 11:24|| 2006-11-27 11:24|| Front Page Top

#7 Thanks, JFM, always nice to have your historical insight.

Posted by anonymous5089 2006-11-27 11:30|| 2006-11-27 11:30|| Front Page Top

#8 Also on the same site you will find articles like Proud to be an American

with sentences like:

"I get upset that some people don't know what it means to be a citizen of this country," she said. "There is no other country in this world like the United States. I tell people, 'Get down on your knees and thank God a million times for being in this country.'"

Posted by JFM">JFM 2006-11-27 11:37|| 2006-11-27 11:37|| Front Page Top

#9 JFM: Have a link to an article about that battle. I'm a youngster compared to most everyone here and would love to read more and some of the battles you talk about. Military History has always fascinated me.

Posted by Charles 2006-11-27 13:32|| 2006-11-27 13:32|| Front Page Top

#10 Unfortunately I have no special links my info comes from 1) a very, very detailed book about WWII I read when in my teens and from Churchill's "History of WWII"

Otherwise search google with Habbaniyah WWII, Habbaniyah Wavell, Habbaniyah Churchill, Habbaniyah Habforce and Habbaniyah Assyrian.

But there is not the welath of materials on teh subject on the internat is not that great.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2006-11-27 14:31|| 2006-11-27 14:31|| Front Page Top

#11 Here is an interesting site devoted to the Assyrian Levies.

Posted by mrp 2006-11-27 14:52|| 2006-11-27 14:52|| Front Page Top

#12 THis http://www.mideastweb.org/iraqaxiscoup.htm is not that bad but it greatly overassess the strength of the British: at the beginning of the siege against the Irqki artillery the British could only oppose the two mortars who had been decoratuing the gates of the base since end of WWI. Alos if memory doesn't failm me there were Wellington heavy bombers on the base only traing planes and Gloster Gladiator (biplanes) fighters all of them biplanes. In fact I think the Irakis were flying more modern planes than the British but to no avail since the Gladiators cleared them of the sky. After that in conjunction with an action of the meager ground forces defending the base they silenced the Iraki artillery. Only then were Wellingtons able to land on Habbaniyah.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2006-11-27 14:59|| 2006-11-27 14:59|| Front Page Top

21:21 Tim Tyler
21:09 Tim Tyler
17:25 Tim Tyler
17:06 Tim Tyler
12:53 teensfwpaa
23:45 Zenster
23:42 trailing wife
23:38 JosephMendiola
23:36 Atomic Conspiracy
23:35 trailing wife
23:34 Stephen
23:25 wxjames
23:24 trailing wife
23:18 Silentbrick
23:08 JosephMendiola
23:02 gromgoru
22:58 JosephMendiola
22:58 gromgoru
22:55 wxjames
22:51 wxjames
22:50 Anguper Hupomosing9418
22:46 Anguper Hupomosing9418
22:45 Silentbrick
22:45 Zenster