Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

Categories


All categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

Open login screen

RSS Readers

Add to Google

Subscribe with Bloglines

Thursday, August 7. 2014

Who could help the Kurds?


Who could? The UN, the UK, Germany, France, the US, Israel, the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, Italy, the Saudis, Turkey, Quatar, Iran, Russia, Iraq, etc. - all could help easily, within hours. Who will step up today?


All they need is water, food, tents, shovels, and maybe some machine guns air-dropped to them prevent a Biblical-style genocide. Where is everybody? On vacation?

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 19:19 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

I can't see any of them helping, and least of all, Turkey. Then Iran and Iraq, Qatar, Russia. Can't see the red Cross or Crescent going into a war zone. Israelis very well might, but have own fight on hands.
#1 Sam L. on 2014-08-07 19:47 (Reply)
I believe Sam L is right. I am given to understand that none of the Kurds' neighbors want to see an independent Kurdish state.

As for those in the West, it strikes me that aiding Muslims is a thankless task.
#1.1 feeblemind on 2014-08-07 21:44 (Reply)
Churchill lamented that when Britain partitioned the Middle East, that they made a mistake in not making a separate country for the Kurds. Unfortunately, all the countries where there are significant populations of Kurds fear a Kurdish state thinking that it will embolden them to make part of their country part of Kurdistan. That seems counter intuitive to me. If you carved Kurdistan out of Iraq, I would think it would draw the other Kurds to settle there like Israel has done for Jews.

If the world made sense, People would be clambering for a state for the Kurds who seem to be reasonable and honorable, but since we live in an anti-intellectual world, the Kurds are ignored while a lot of people want to carve a state out of Israel (another group who are reasonable and honorable) for the Palestinians, who are almost universally dirt bags.
#1.2 mudbug on 2014-08-07 22:26 (Reply)
remember those countries are all muhammedans, they think everyone thinks like themselves and is pathologically expansionist.
So yes, they think that the Kurds (and the Israelis) are out to conquer the world because that's what they themselves would do.

As to why the US hasn't helped the Kurds. Well, you wouldn't want to upset the Iraqis and Turks, would you? Or the muslim brotherhood (aka ISIS, aka AQ)... They might get angry and fly some aircraft into American buildings...
#1.2.1 J.T. Wenting on 2014-08-07 23:57 (Reply)
Pathologically expansionist, Pathologically duplicitous. Pathologically batshit crazy.
#1.2.1.1 B Moe on 2014-08-08 10:19 (Reply)
"... they think that the Kurds (and the Israelis) are out to conquer the world because that's what they themselves would do..."

"Según su condición, así juzga el Ladrón" - an old Spanish saying about the human condition, that sums up your comment perfectly...
#1.2.1.2 Jacksonian Grouch on 2014-08-08 14:26 (Reply)
Obama is dropping salads to the Yazidis. Michelle had a hand in it.
#2 rhhardin (Link) on 2014-08-07 21:28 (Reply)
San Francisco in the 1970's I met a very nice Kurdish family. Very good neighbors, trying so hard to be American and not loose their sense of integrity.

We will go in there when we have an absolute assurance to own/control their oil. The big oil in Iraq is in Kurdish territory. Let's help these people get the freedom they have fought for for sooooo long (centuries in fact). We gave it to the Israelis, why can't we help the Kurds? Oil baby, oil.
#3 faculty wife on 2014-08-07 22:24 (Reply)
The mountains of (present-day) Eastern Turkey, far northwest Iran, Northeast Syria and Northern Iraq have always been (for as long as the Kurds have been a distinctive group) their homeland. All of the countries in that region have had centuries (millennia?) of "experience" fighting with, or against, the Kurds, who are renowned for their fierce raiding abilities. IIRC, Saladin , who defeated the Crusaders, was a Kurd. While they may be Sunni Muslims, they are Kurdish first and foremost.
In recent times, the only country to offer them any assistance has been the US; is it any wonder that they look to us for help now? I also remember reading somewhere that the Israelis have been attempting to negotiate with them...
#4 cas on 2014-08-08 09:19 (Reply)
The Europeans will take the position "Let the stupid Americans get out in front." Participation? Zero.

Count on it.
#5 Col. Bunny (Link) on 2014-08-08 11:08 (Reply)
Are the US and Turkey, both members of NATO, fighting a proxy war in Syria and Iran, where Turkey backs whoever is kiliing Kurds and US back the Kurds?
#6 ErisGuy on 2014-08-08 17:58 (Reply)
Something fishy about the Kurds all of a sudden losing battles, towns and turf. Long as I can remember, they were tough as nails. The Turks and Iranians could not defeat them and neither could Saddam H. Mean to tell me that bunch of fanatics called ISIS can run over them? I don't buy it. I sorta figure they are playing the game to garner external support in the form of MORE American money, weapons and bomber support.
Them Middle Eastern types are always slippery as eels. I reckon they are likely playing simple Uncle Sam for a fool. Again.
#7 W. C. Taqiyya on 2014-08-08 23:49 (Reply)

Add Comment
(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)

By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email
addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications.

Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u],
[url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here.

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA

BBCode format allowed
 
 
A Chris Southern Consulting website.