U.S. Senator John McCain's fight on behalf of the Kurds

Rizgar Khoshnaw | Exclusive to iKurd.net

Recently, I read many news articles about Senator John McCain and his fight for the rights of the Kurds. He has been very vocal and determined to fight for the Kurdish cause/rights in every possible way, but sadly, I think KRG’s acknowledgment of Senator McCain’s sincerity and his Kurdish support has come a little too late.

In the past decade, the KRG has been too busy working with the wrong former US policy makers and politicians. In reality, the KRG has not been working with, but rather, “buying” some useless former US politicians (no need to mention whom I am referring to as we all know who I mean!) when they should have been working along with the sincere and uncorrupt US politicians, like Senator McCain.

In the past 30 years, I have written Senator McCain three times and he has answered me back every single time. The first letter that I wrote him was in 1988 soon after the tragic Anfal of Halabja, and he wrote me back and promised to investigate this incident thoroughly.

The second time I wrote him was in the beginning of 1998 informing him of the pitiful living conditions of Kurds in Kurdistan during the oil-for-food program that was not helping the Kurdish citizens. I also told him that the oil-for-food program was full of corruption and the US government/agencies should investigate the program. Once again, Senator McCain promised to look into this issue. On July 2001, I sent Senator McCain a copy of the book I wrote about the corruption/mismanagement of the oil-for-food program and I received a call from his office thanking me for sending a copy to him.

John McCain letter to Rizgar Khoshnaw — John McCain’s letter to Rizgar Khoshnaw. Photo: Provided by Rizgar Khoshnaw. Click on photo to enlarge.

The third time I wrote Senator McCain was June 2002 and not only he answered my letter, but he wrote me back and had sent a copy of my letter to Virginia Senator, George Allen, relaying my message and concerns to him as well.

The point that I am trying to make here is that the KRG seem to always join forces/rely on the wrong people and never learn from their mistakes! When will the KRG listen to their own people and not depend on the foreign advisers that keep misleading/cheating them? Was it not the fault of those foreign “advisers” that convinced Mr. Massoud Barzani to go a head with the ill-timed referendum? Is it possible that one day the KRG will wake up and realize their mistakes and try to rectify them? Only time will tell, but I am not holding my breath!

Rizgar Xoshnaw, a senior Kurdish writer based in Washington, a longtime contributing writer and columnist for iKurd.net.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.