A Must Read

I often read Michael J. Totten's blog. I find his articles very insightful, and you will notice that on the right of this page there is a standing link to his blog listed under "My Daily Reads". When I started reading his blog he was currently in Lebanon. He offered amazing glimpses of what life there must be like for the "locals". As of late, he is in Iraq doing some consulting work, but still offering valuable insight into the life of the "locals". His blog that I read today was one that left me stunned in a sense. We here about all of the usual goings on in Iraq, but to be honest, I have heard very little about Iraqi Kurdistan. I was oblivious to the fact that there was a little place inside Iraq that was so different from the rest of what I envisioned as being Iraq and Iraqi. Ok, maybe most of you know more about this than I do, and I am completely naive in this department, but I wanted to share this post of Mr. Totten's with you all just in case I wasn't alone.

Here is just a snip-it from the article. An example of one of the many things that he covered in this article.

“As a military person, I am disturbed by what is going on in America now,” he said and jabbed his finger in the air. “They want to withdraw their troops.” He banged his fist on his desk. “We want the Americans to stay. Why are people thinking like this?”

“America is divided,” I said. “We argue amongst ourselves about this.”

“Some of the politicians in Congress believe it will get them elected,” Patrick said, “if they say they’re going to withdraw from Iraq. But many of them know that the resolution that just passed…President Bush will kill it dead.”

“Yes,” General Karam said. “President Bush insisted.”

“The resolution is vetoed on arrival,” Patrick said.

“I want you, as a reporter, as a journalist,” the general said to me, “to get our Kurdish voice to the American people so they know about Kurdish suffering in Iraq. We don’t want the American army to leave this area. The terrorists are excited about what is going on in the Congress.”

“They are playing to cable television in the U.S.” Patrick said.

“That’s why we want you to pass this on to the American people,” said the general.

“Of course,” I said. “It is my job.”

The general angrily answered his phone, yelled into it, and hung up.

You can read the entire article here.