Maine Policy Review

Volume 13 | Issue 2

2004 The Other Iraq Wayne Myers

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Recommended Citation Myers, Wayne. "The Other Iraq." Maine Policy Review 13.2 (2004) : 8 -10, https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mpr/vol13/ iss2/3.

This Essay is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. THE MARGARET CHASE SMITH ESSAY

The Margaret Chase Smith Essay

n May 2004 I was one of three rural Iraqi Kurdistan is an area about the Ihealth specialists visiting northeastern size of New Hampshire plus Vermont. The Iraq, the home of 4.5 million Kurdish Mountain ridges separate broad fertile people. This region, friendly to America, valleys. Most of Iraq’s rain falls in these secular, self-governing and fully func- highlands. Goats and sheep and a few Other tional, is very different from the parts cows graze. Row crops, including some of Iraq that dominate the news. These rice, are grown using old Iraqi-built trac- differences beg the questions, “What is it tors and much hand work. Iraq that so many troops from Maine are being The Iraqi Kurds suffered terribly asked to accomplish in Iraq? Can we under Saddam Hussein. The central by Wayne Myers recognize and nurture regional success Baathist government had several agendas in a deteriorating national situation?” leading to the common policy of The Kurdish homeland is the moun- displacing parts of the Kurdish popula- tainous region shared by Turkey, Syria, tion, living or dead. Baghdad wished to Iraq, Iran and Armenia. The Kurds have depopulate its border with Iran, to elimi- been there for millennia. They fought nate local support for resistance fighters, Alexander the Great on his way to India, the Peshmerga, and to consolidate small and appear in the Old Testament as the villages into larger centers, where surveil- Medes. In Kurdish history, the arrival of lance and conscription could be more the Arabs from the south in the seventh effective. Thousands of villages were century and the Turks from central Asia destroyed. Sunni Arabs were resettled in the 13th century are relatively recent into Kurdish population centers, including developments. Mosul and oil-rich Kirkuk. A young Today, there are about 25 million physician describes his student years, Kurds, half of whom live in eastern “We studied hearing shots and screams.” Turkey. The Kurds claim to be the largest In 1988 Halabjah was an agricultural ethnic group in the world without its hub town with over 50,000 people. own country. Each of the five nations The Iraqi army attacked with poison controlling a part of the Kurdish domain gas, killing over 5,000 men, women is strongly opposed to autonomy for any and children. Halabjah was one of 280 Kurdish population, particularly its own. towns and villages attacked with chemical This issue is intense in Turkey, where the weapons. Western journalists and photo- Kurdish areas are heavily militarized. graphers happened to be in Halabjah at

8 · MAINE POLICY REVIEW · Fall/Winter 2004 View current & previous issues of MPR at: www.umaine.edu/mcsc/mpr.htm THE MARGARET CHASE SMITH ESSAY

the time and made the atrocity known to a Baathist police station has become a land, water and oil ended with Saddam’s the outside world. The Baathist govern- rural health clinic. rule. It has been a fact of life for genera- ment regarded the resulting outcry as Ordinary life is approaching tions and will continue. The manage- indication of ties between the Kurds and normality. One holiday morning a city ment of the country by the Coalition the United States. Following the first Gulf park was populated with high school Provisional Authority was severely criti- War, the Kurds, with U.S. encouragement, students studying for graduation exams. cized as oblivious to Middle Eastern issues rebelled against Saddam Hussein, as did Later, picnicking families enjoyed olive and social patterns. “We know men are other Iraqi groups. Saddam retaliated, groves across the countryside. Rural from Mars and Women are from Venus, pushing Kurdish civilians toward closed villages are being rebuilt as large modern but what planet is Bremmer from?” The borders with Turkey and Iran. The “collective villages” of several thousand “One Iraq” mantra of American officials suffering and death of many led to the people. A building boom is in full swing. drew an ominous comment from Kurds: establishment of the “northern no-fly Whole blocks of large homes are being “You want to unify Iraq? All you have to zone.” Unable to protect his forces, built. Many are said to belong to Kurds do is turn us Kurds against America. Then Saddam withdrew in 1992 the Iraqi mili- returning from Istanbul, Europe and the you’ll have national unity.” tary, Baathist civil government, education United States. New roads are being built. Many professionals expressed wishes and health personnel from the three Reforestation programs are evident all for ongoing U.S. protection: “Why can’t Kurdish “governorates,” or states. About through the mountains. Kurdistan be your next Israel?”. Or, “We 800,000 Kurds died as a result of On the other hand, many elements know Puerto Rico will be the 51st state. Saddam’s programs, a number similar to of infrastructure are lacking. Safe water We’ll settle for number 52.” the death toll in the Rwanda genocide. is available in most communities, but the The “Law of Administration for the Since 1992, Iraqi Kurds have been quality is not reliable and reasons to use it State of Iraq for the Transition Period” largely self-governing. We found the are not widely understood. Pasteurization (the LAT) described the structure of Iraqi region quiet but vigilant. Check points of dairy products is nonexistent. Of every government before the transfer of sover- maintained by governorate militia were thousand babies born, 55 will die before eignty. That document recognized the numerous. Neighborhoods where govern- their first birthday, half the infant Kurdish language, and the region of ment officials or foreigners live were mortality rate for the rest of Iraq but Kurdistan with its elections, courts and heavily guarded. Favorite mental images nearly 10 times the rate seen in suburban powers to tax and spend. Those provisions include the young guard with AK-47 in white America. About half of all deliveries and recognitions disappeared with the hand playing soccer with street kids; the are out of hospital. Landmines threaten transfer of sovereignty in late June. The older guard with submachine gun in one many rural activities. Kurds regard the LAT as in force until hand hosing flower petals off the side- Americans are well thought of. We superseded by a new constitution. Leaders walk with the other. saw a homemade American flag flying of the Shia majority in the rest of the Saddam’s military bases have been alongside a Kurdish flag over a military country reject continuation of the LAT. replaced. The site of one in Erbil is now mountain outpost. We Americans felt The current government in Baghdad, a memorial, with a reflecting pool, restau- comfortable roaming the markets. Keepers preoccupied with widespread insurrection, rant and an elaborate rose garden. The of small businesses invited us in for tea. continues de facto recognition. base in Sulimania is now a university Children practiced their English with The Kurds are suspending judgment campus. Dohuk’s base has become a shouted greetings. and action until a definitive pattern of diverse park with something for every Americans regard Baghdad as the government is established following the family member: brightly lighted carnival capital of Iraq. The Kurds are ambivalent elections held in January. They seem rides, lawns with fountains, and a modern at best. They do not believe that the willing to collaborate and cooperate but shopping center. The burned out shell of interest of the Arab majority in Kurdish not capitulate. Kurdish defense forces, the

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Peshmerga, are well organized, experi- enced and utterly committed to their people and homeland. As Iraq evolves, it seems desirable for the American people and policymakers to be aware and supportive of the Iraqi Kurds. Within Iraq, theirs is a uniquely functional society where ordinary people of various faiths can lead ordinary lives. History suggests it will not fare well if it is entirely subject to the Arab majority of Wayne Myers is a retired pedia- the rest of the country. The Kurds will trician. He spent most of his career fight to protect their society if it is again developing rural health programs threatened by the Arab majority. in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest American policy in Iraq seems to and Kentucky, including ways for have been guided by Washington doctrine rather than Middle Eastern reality. If we medical and allied health students continue a steadfast “One Iraq” policy, to study in rural communities. He Maine’s National Guard members and directed the Federal Office of Rural reservists may be asked to fight our only Health Policy from 1998 through real friends and allies in Iraq. 2000, and was the president of the Iraqi Kurdistan is a highly functional National Rural Health Association Middle Eastern society similar to what we claim as the goal of “nation building” in in 2003. He and his wife, JoAnn, the Middle East, a democratic secular raise heritage livestock and organic society with a free market economy where produce on Beau Chemin Farm westerners are welcomed. We should see in Waldoboro. that it becomes a model rather than a casualty. ᳚

10 · MAINE POLICY REVIEW · Fall/Winter 2004 View current & previous issues of MPR at: www.umaine.edu/mcsc/mpr.htm View current & previous issues of MPR at: www.umaine.edu/mcsc/mpr.htm Fall/Winter 2004 · MAINE POLICY REVIEW · 11