In an article that analyzes the Mosul war and whether victory there means the end of all troubles in this now destroyed ancient city, French philosopher and author Bernard-Henri Levy says that as the war in Mosul comes to an end the world must remember and acknowledge that it was the Kurdish Peshmerga that paved the way for Iraqi troops to reach the city in October of 2016.
For that reason, he argues, the world should thank the Kurds and stand behind them in their planned independence referendum in September.
“It was the Kurdish peshmerga that, in October and November 2016, opened Mosul’s gates for the Iraqis.” Levy writes in the Canadian Globe and Mail and Tablet magazine titled Mosul: A mission not yet accomplished.
“It is they who, for two long years, held fast (as England alone resisted the Nazis until well into 1941) while the Iraqi army recovered from the rout of August 2014; it is they who held a front line a thousand kilometers long before ultimately repelling the Islamic State. Fighters, they were, from the very start, sentinels of a free world that everywhere else was buckling under the Islamist surge.”
The French philosopher who has visited the Kurdistan Region on several occasions and made two films about the Peshmerga and their fight against ISIS wonders if the world who thanked the Kurds on the eve of the final battle, will “dismiss the historic role they played?”
On the Kurdish September 25 referendum, Levy suggests, the world will have two stances to choose from.
First is to: “To throw up a great hue and cry, as Ankara, Teheran, and Moscow have already done, to urge this erstwhile ally, no longer needed, to be a good little ally and to cool its heels: Let’s not add chaos to chaos, goes the argument; let’s not pour more powder into the powder keg of the area; no one needs a new state to further inflame a Middle East that is already complicated enough.”
And the second is to admit that Iraq is failing while Kurdistan, on the other hand, is prospering as a home for all religious and ethnic minorities.
“Or to heed the opposing voices contending that Iraq is the factitious state, a state born from the convulsions of the First World War, a colonial artifact. And to bring stability to the region nothing could be better, the counterargument continues, than to recognize a nation already endowed with solid democratic institutions, a culture of respect for non-Kurdish minorities and for women, a taste for secularism, a concern for good governance, and a sincere tilt toward the West.”
Levy dismisses the idea that an independent Kurdistan would cause instability and is confident that Kurdistan will be a force for good.
He writes: “Far from destabilizing the region, the emergence of a free Kurdistan would be a potent force for stability and peace.”
“The conclusion of the battle of Mosul challenges us all to make this heartfelt choice for justice and reason.”
