----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Pollak" <mpollak at panix.com>
On Sat, 19 Oct 2002, Peter K. wrote: -Yep. The Kurds made it quite clear when we canvassed them six months ago -that they were against intervention.
I actually returned from a wedding this weekend that happened to be stacked with the human rights liberals folks here complain about-- one who has spent the year on the ground in Sierra Leone trying to defend people in the aftermath of civil war from repression, another who works on international environmental justice issues, and so on. And one who just started work at Human Rights Watch, someone who was probably the most far left in the class aside from me, someone who has spent years back in India doing leftwing community organizing and is largely a left Gandhian in his politics. And according to him the raging debate at HRW is how far to go in condemning Bush's proposed war in Iraq as a likely war crime and violation of international law-- no one supports it despite this ridiculous idea of them acting as a figleaf for imperialism.
What is true according to their on the ground interviews is that the Kurds are actually far more in favor of US intervention than the papers are reporting. That doesn't mean I'd support intervention, but the political leadership of the Kurds have been pretty clear in supporting some form of intervention, as long as they get assurances of their autonomy in the aftermath.
-- Nathan Newman