Kurdistan: The Other Iraq

Bob Simon On How The Kurds Are Reshaping Northeastern Iraq

(CBS)  The Kurds are acting as if the end of Iraq is near. In many schools, English, not Arabic, is being taught as the second language.

The Kurds are very big on the trappings of statehood. It’s as if they’re eager to prove that they exist. They have their own 175,000-man Army, the pesh merga, which means "those who face death." When you arrive in Erbil, immigration officers give your passport a Kurdish stamp. And if you want to see the Iraqi flag, don’t come to Kurdistan. It has been banned.

"Under that flag they destroyed our country, our people. So that’s why our approach is to change that flag and have a new one," Prime Minister Barzani explains.

The new Kurdish flag is literally everywhere; but it’s a flag without a country.

Like most Kurds, Dr. Ali Saed Mohammed, the president of Sulemaniya University, would like to change that, and soon.

"What would happen if tomorrow the prime minister of Kurdistan went before parliament and said I declare a state, an independent Kurdistan," Simon asks.

"This decision will be welcomed by 99.9 percent of the Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan. We will say yes. We will back it," Dr. Mohammed says.

Dr. Mohammed wants the prime minister to take the step, preferably "tomorrow," he tells Simon.

But the Kurdish prime minister is not likely to push for complete independence. Not tomorrow. Not next year.

"Every Kurd we’ve spoken to since we’ve been here says, 'We’re a separate country. We’re Kurds. We don’t want to be with Iraq,'" Simon remarks. "You’re prime minister of this country."

"I think it’s a right for every Kurd to say that. Because, really, they are different. They are a different nation, different people. So, but we have to be realistic," Barzani tells Simon.

"Being realistic means that the Iranians and the Turks and the Syrians would not be happy if you were to declare nationhood. Is that what you are saying, Sir?" Simon asks.

"Yeah, exactly. Our neighbors, they will create more problems for us," the prime minister explains.

The Kurds have a saying: no friends but the mountains. There are 30 million Kurds in the world, the largest nation without a state. But only five million reside inside Iraq’s borders. The rest are in Iran, Syria and primarily Turkey. There are so many Kurds in Turkey that the Turks are afraid that an independent Kurdish state would lead to unrest; they are dead set against it.

So Kurdish leaders believe that, at least for the time being, the answer is federalism, a soft partition of Iraq into three parts. Kurdistan in the north, a Sunni state in the middle and a Shiite region to the south, with Baghdad as only a nominal capital.

While Barzani and Kurdistan may be paving the way for such a division, the American government doesn’t want partition of any kind, no matter what it’s called. The Bush administration and the U.S. military see Kurdistan not as a shining new nation but as a shining example to the rest of a united Iraq.

"I think if the Iraqis will simply look north and see what the possibilities are, and do not align themselves with the extremists they can see the great potential that this country has to be a prosperous nation," Maj. Gen. Mixon explains.

"But from the Kurdish point of view, they’ve got a going concern. Now they’re at peace. They’re making money. They’re looking towards the future. They look to the rest of Iraq and they see chaos. They see bloodshed. They see civil war. Why shouldn’t they try to remain separate?" Simon asks.

"I believe that to their long-term interest, it’s better to stay linked with Iraq and all the resources that are available throughout Iraq and it makes them stronger," Mixon says.

Many Kurds believe the Americans are missing the point. A separate Kurdistan, they say, would make for something extremely unusual: an American ally in the Middle East.

"The Kurds will be the best friends in the region," Dr. Mohammed says. "Even better than Israel, I am sure of that. We will be the best friends for the Americans in this region. We will be faithful."

Dr. Mohammed does not view the war as a U.S. invasion. "It is liberation. Americans liberated Iraqi people from dictatorship," he tells Simon.

It is a sentiment echoed in, of all places, a mosque. Like Iraqi Arabs, Kurds are Muslims. But this is surely the only Islamic part of the Middle East where you’ll hear kind words about America after Friday prayers.

"Can America think of Kurdistan as an ally, as a friend?" Simon asked a man.

"We were always with Americans. We even love America. But we are waiting for America to repay our love," the man replied.

[jimmykatter]

Oprah Winfrey, Lesley stahl, Mary Hart, etc. ,etc. all fell into the very smart racist, segregationist newspaper people's trap. Do I think they're intelligent now ?

[jimmykatter]

Do research on Michael H Hart, and his plans for the purefied segregation of the United States. Then look at purefied, segregated Kurdistan, and see the smilarity.

[jimmykatter]

Jimmy Pattisson, and his thug leader, President Bush, had no trouble adding Oprah Winfrey's black face, along with Condoleezza Rice, as a front for the American Fourth Reich. It was nice of him to use his yacht to show her Canada's segregated, purefied aboriginals. Their nations remind me of Kurdistan.

[jimmykatter]

Remember, George Bernard Shaw was a eugenecist, and I have already proven that the cable companies monitor our TV watching for the government. When I was young, I noticed some students weren't allowed to watch TV at all; perhaps, for this reason.

[cocotteblue]

Representing Kurdistan as a peaceful region with a peaceful population does not take into account their decades long of fighting with Turkey. Kurd extremists have committed acts of terrorism in Turkey and their attempts to obtain their independance from that country are far from "peaceful". However, it is true that the Kurdish population is non agressive in general, but a documentary such as the one broadcasted last Sunday should present both aspect of the Kurdish society. They fight for oil just like anyone else.

[jimmykatter]

Afghanistan has produced another record opium crop with President Bush in charge.It certainly looks like Bush, the Prescotts, the Howells, and the Mathesons have duped everyone into believing they're against opium ( after their roles in the opium wars ). During the Vietnam war, the military drug smugglers used to smuggle the opium back to the U.S. in the caskets ( or bodies ) of the dead American soldiers.

[saiyanthan]

Your comment that Kurds, 30 million people, are the largest nation without a state is factually incorrect. Tamils are a 70 million strong nation without a state(50 million in India alone). The 3.5 million strong Tamils in Sri Lanka are fighting for their independent state.

[juwboy]

jimmykatter:

Thank you for defeating your own argument and strengthening mine.

[jimmykatter]

Patriotic Union of Kurdistan President of Iraq is an oxymoron.

[jimmykatter]

The American Nazis proved to the German Nazis that they were the superior Nazis in both WW1 and WW2.

[jimmykatter]

I'm very afraid an American Nazi is monitoring what I'm saying on here.

[prinzowhales]

The great difference between Kurdistan and the rest of Iraq is that there are no occupying troops in the region. If you want the Sunnis to appreciate the opportunities of post Saddam Iraq, then get the devil out of the country and let them be! The Sunnis and Shia will reach an accommodation.

[srowitt]

I was pleasantly surprised to see the Prime Minister of Kurdistan correcting Bob Simon's characterization of the American 'invasion' of Iraq as the American 'liberation' of Iraq.

It is ironic that someone who actually understands the truth about our presence in Iraq correcting a supposedly unbiased media insider like Simon. The mainstream media has been lying to the American people for years and painting the United States in the worst way possible.

As far as I can tell, the murder of hundreds of thousands Iraqis means very little to a majority of liberals today. Where is their compassion for their fellow man? The cut and runners thought nothing of the mass murder that followed our defeat in Viet Nam. No wonder they are so apt to leave the Iraqis to the barbaric Isalmo fascists. I don't really believe they truly care.

The real heroes of this conflict will be those who brave coalition troops who have been risking their lives for the freedom of the Iraqi people. Anyone who has politicized this war for political gain should be ashamed of themselves. Who in the right mind would have stood against FDR during WWII? That generation understood the need for unity against a common enemy. Half of our country today has been duped into believing that our duly elected President is the enemy while the democratic presidential wannabees are pandering to those very same anti-American bloggers at the Daily KOS.

[jimmykatter]

The German eugenecists, who learned all they knew from the Americans, actually began with sterilizations, rather than killing, like the Americans. Nine categories of defectives were identified for sterilization; at the top of the list; the feebleminded, followed by schizophrenia, manic depression, Huntington's chorea, epilepsy, hereditary body deformities, deafness, hereditary blindness, and alcoholism.
The outright killing began after the forced sterilizations.
Hitler's insanity was financed by American jewish eugenecist banker james loeb.

[jimmykatter]

Actually, truthfully, Hitler eliminated his pacifist generals first, and replaced them with hawk generals.
Anyone who labels people, like Hitler did, must be a sympathizer.

[juwboy]

jimmykatter:

When Hitler came to power, the first groups he eliminated were his political opponents: socialists, communists, Marxists, labor leaders and other left-wingers.

Next, he turned his attention to the category he considered the greatest threat to the purity of his glorious German master race.

It wasn't the Jews.

Or homosexuals.

Or gypsies.

No, the groups that Hitler wanted exterminated with the greatest urgency were the mentally-retarded and feeble-minded:

Inbreeds, idiots, imbeciles, half-wits, simpletons, morons and cretins.

People just like you, jimmykatter!

[colonieny]

Jimmy : You are an idiot.

[jimmykatter]

It should also be remembered that the German jews sided with Adolf Hitler,the Austrians, the Ottoman Turks, and the Kurds to slaughter the Assyrian Christians in northern Iraq.

[jimmykatter]

The kurds aren't perennial underdogs. They helped the Ottoman Turks to slaughter the Assyrian christians around mosul in iraq.
The reason kurdistan is secure is because it's a purefied kurd country; any country can be secure if it's purefied; ask adolf hitler.
The Austrians sided with the Ottoman Turks, and Kurds during WW1; it's not surprizing they're the first airline to show up there.
The kurds are backing Al Qaeda, no wonder there's no terrorists there.

[karatirpan]

TRY TO MAKE KURDISTAN AND SEE...THIS IS RIDICILOUS HE IS MAKING UP A NEWS LIKE THAT...WE WILL INVADE IT NEXT MINUTE...MANY KURDS ARE PKK TERRORISTS. KERKUK AND MUSUL BELONGS TO TURKEY. TURKEY WILL INVADE NEXT MINUTE IF THEY TRY TO MAKE INDEPENDECE OF A TERRORIST COUNTRY. TURKS WILL DO ANYTHING TO STOP IT. SHAME ON CBS NEWS, SHAME ON THE REPORTER. THEY DONT SHOW THE OTHER SIDE OF IT KILLING BABIES AND WOMAN AND ELDER IN TURKEY THOS TERRORISTS IN THE MOUNTAINS. WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY INDEPENDENT KURDISH *** PLACE.