Report From The Iraqi North

Image Credit: http://www.hp.uab.edu/image_archive/ug/kurdistan.jpg

This development is generally ignored by the Main Stream Media. Free Kurds in northern Iraq, want to spread the wealth!

Imagine that. This can only mean trouble for our own "cut-and-run" crowd here in the U.S.. Where's Cindy Sheehan, Howard Dean, John Kerry, Al Franken, John Murtha, and etc. to speak against the "unprovoked" Kurdish incursion into Iran to promote freedom?

This posting from Captian's Quarters -

April 03, 2006
Iranian Kurds Take On Teheran

The Kurds of Iraq have enjoyed their taste of freedom so much that they wish to extend it to their cousins across the border. The Washington Times reports on the efforts of a secular, Western-sympathetic band of insurgents that have targeted the Iranian military in a region of the Islamic Republic that has four million Kurds living under the mullahcracy's thumb:

A little-known organization based in the mountains of Iraq's Kurdish north is emerging as a serious threat to the Iranian government, staging cross-border attacks and claiming tens of thousands of supporters among Iran's 4 million Kurds.

The Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, better known by the local acronym PEJAK or PJAK, claims to have killed 24 Iranian soldiers in three raids against army bases last month, all staged in retaliation for the killing of 10 Iranian Kurds during a peaceful demonstration in the city of Maku.

Three more soldiers from Iran's elite Republican Guard were killed last week in a gunbattle near the Iraqi border, Iran's official news agency reported.

But the greater threat to the Tehran regime may come from the group's underground effort to promote a sense of identity among Iranian Kurds, who make up 7 percent of that country's population. PEJAK leaders say the effort is spreading quickly among students, intellectuals and businessmen.

"The Iranian government's plan to create a global Islamic state is destroying our people's culture and values," said Akif Zagros, 28, a graduate in Persian literature who was interviewed in a simple stone hut at the group's headquarters. "So we fight back. But our aim is not just to bring freedom to Kurds, but to liberate all the peoples of Iran."

It's amazing that the Kurds remain so pro-Western, considering the raw deal that the West has given them since Winston Churchill started dividing up Southwest Asia.

Read All>>

UPDATE: The National Organization for Women should be involved in these efforts.

More excerpts directly from The Washington Times article -

Tehran faces growing Kurdish opposition
By James Brandon

Unlike most other rebel groups in the Middle East, PEJAK (The Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, better known by the local acronym PEJAK or PJAK) is secular and Western-oriented. When the group's members talk, their Kurdish is peppered with such Western words as "freedom," "human rights" and "ecology."

PEJAK's ideology combines the Kurds' traditionally low-key Islam and pagan-influenced culture with the movement's political opposition to the dogmatic Islamic government in Tehran.

Nearly half the group's members are women, attracted by its promotion of sexual equality. Female volunteers receive the same training as the men, wear the same clothes, and greet visitors with a steady eye and firm handshake.

"Here in our camp, the women learn to be strong so that when they go back to Iran, they can teach women and, in fact, all people about our struggle for democracy and human rights," said Gulistan Dugan, 36, a psychology graduate from the University of Tehran and a member of the leadership council.

"The daughters of our movement take part in all our operations, including military ones."

It is to bad that the looney left NOW could not adopt some of the principles that PEJAK has adopted for their struggle to be free.