ANOTHER GOOD GUY SPEAKS: Barham Salih, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, in Friday's Wall Street Journal. We need to go to the wall for people like this:
"Today, we fight alongside you because in a world of cynicism, the U.S., and its genuine allies, understand that they cannot use the Kurdish dead to justify this war and then sell out the Kurdish living. We have been sickened to hear those who armed Saddam preach to us about the horrors of war, to listen to those who helped prop up the dictator prate about international law.
We are fighting for a federal, democratic Iraq that will be at peace with its citizens and its neighbors. For decades the Kurds have argued for a federal Iraq that would protect the rights and identities of all Iraqis. Federalism is now the goal of the Iraqi opposition and received the blessing of Pres. Bush on March 6...
To work, Iraqi federalism must be democratic and plural. We must hold elections quickly, to allow long-silenced Iraqis to speak. Of course, the true test of democracy is when people know they can afford to lose elections. In a democracy, when you lose at the polls the worst that can happen is that you are a "has been." In too much of the Middle East, if elections are even held, lose them and you are a jailbird...
In our rebuilding, as in our liberation, we will need U.S. support. Together we can add to the acheivements of Free Iraq by transforming Iraq from the Middle East at its worst into a beaconof hope for a region that has been too long trapped in fear."
"Thou shalt not extinguish thine anger, but shall master it,
that thy conscience may not be blunted by adjustment
to wrong causes."
-The Dutch Ten Commandments to Foil the Nazis
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