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Comments by YACCS

 

Double standard of the day

There's an oppressed ethnic minority in the Middle East. Thousands of members of this minority have been murdered. Its land is occupied, and the very right of this minority to form a state is denied by the occupiers. The Islamic nations of the world are horrified by this situation, and demand that something be done. Ha, ha. See, as the Iranian foreign minister explains, the primary goal of the Islamic countries is to make sure that nothing is done:

Q: So the consultations on northern Iraq have started between your country and Turkey?

A: That has always been on the agenda for us, the Turks, as well as the Syrians.

Q: You mean what to do if there is a vacuum in northern Iraq, for instance?

A: That is a legitimate concern for all three neighboring countries. We are against any disintegration of Iraq into different parts.

Q: Aren't you concerned that if there is a war, no matter what the United States promises, there will be an independent Kurdish entity?

A: That is what we cannot accept.

See, that's the nice thing about Middle Eastern dictatorships (a redundancy if I've ever heard one). They don't obfuscate about their feelings. France would explain how giving the Kurds a state is too "simplistic"; Germany would talk about how we need to take into account the feelings of the Arab street. Iran just says, "Screw 'em. We don't want to. Ain't gonna happen."

A cynic would argue that perhaps the silence of the so-called world community, when compared to their vociferous denunications of Israel, demonstrates anti-semitism. But as a realist, I'd disagree. It's really anti-Westernism, and in particular anti-Americanism. After all, we do occasionally hear about Turkey's treatment of the Kurds. It's only Iraq and Iran who get to persecute the Kurds with impunity. Why? Because the U.S. doesn't support Iraq or Iran, so their behavior simply doesn't count.
posted by David Nieporent at 9/23/2002 04:05:00 AM |