Our delegation meets with survivors of Saddam Hussein’s Anfal genocide campaign.
Posted on 11/09/2006 5:35:59 PM PST by Impeach98
Kristinn Taylor's 3rd Report from FREE IRAQ
We've had a jam packed two days. Yesterday we met with the Kurdistan Regional Government's Ministers of Finance, the Interior (security) and Martyrs and Victims. We also visited a former 'concentration camp for Kurds set up by Saddam as a weigh station to extermination. And we got to meet with more American troops.
Today we visited a school that gives a classical education starting from the first grade. The teachers and students were thrilled to meet us.
In fact, everywhere we've gone the children have been thrilled to see us. We don't have any candy to give them, just broad smiles, happy waves and the love in our hearts. But that's enough for them, because they know we are Americans and they know what Americans have done for them.
Later, we were in Suleymaniyah, a thriving metropolis, and were given a guided tour of one of Saddam's prison/torture centers by a former prisoner -- a hell on earth called the Red House.
After the Kurds stormed the prison in 1991 and drove out the Baathists, they decided to preserve it as a memorial and a witness to the Saddam regime's crimes against humanity. They have turned part of it into a birdhouse for 'doves of peace.'
The former prisoner took us through the prison, showing us where Kurds were imprisoned and tortured, and some of the methods of torture including those used on him in his seven months there.
The Kurds also have on display a gallows from Abu Ghraib.
Touring the prison cells, both the families and our Iraqi Kurd escorts got very choked up. Saddam Hussein and his henchmen were evil, and they practiced it on such a scale of brutality that the Iraqis call him their Hitler.
The Kurds have also preserved some of the Soviet military tanks, armored vehicles and mortars Saddam's regime used to wage war on the Iraqi people. They are parked on the prison grounds as a reminder.
Such was the oppression we were told, that in those day those passing by the prison on the main street were commanded to look away from it, lest they themselves be imprisoned there.
The former prisoner now has the keys to the prison, and the truth of the horrors perpetrated there can now be shown to the world.
Our journey to Suleymaniyah took about three hours from Erbil. We drove on new roads that were paralleled by new power lines and phone lines, crossed by new water lines, lined by new construction, farming and new stores.
The peshmerga (military/security force) maintain a strong security presence, but not overbearing. The police and peshmerga work hand in hand to protect northern Iraq from the terrorists -- and they are very successful. We felt very comfortable going about our day, including a stop at the town of Koya where we walked through its shopping bazaars and wandered its streets.
The Iraqi Kurds have been very friendly to us this entire trip. Even though they valiantly fought for their freedom, they know and acknowledge that their efforts could only have succeeded with the help and sacrifices of the American people. They do not want us to cut and run.
For me personally, this trip has made clear the success of the American-led effort in Iraq. That's right, I said success. None of what is happening in the northern part of Iraq would have been possible as long as Saddam and his goons ruled Iraq.
And because Saddam is gone from power, there is one less state sponsor of international terrorism in the world.
We have one more day before we go. This has been an exhilitaring, but emotionally draining trip for the Gold Star families. I am in awe of their strength of spirit and their desire to see the mission of their fallen sons succeed completely everywhere in Iraq.
Stay tuned for more... complete updates posted online at: www.MoveAmericaForward.org
Kristinn Taylor
And I hope they all write about their trip.
I hope that their story will be told across this country.
And to all the Gold Star family members who are on this trip, God Bless you for doing this!
Bump for Kristin!!
And thanks also for watching over the precious people that accompanied you to Free Iraq.
What a great healing process for both of them
A 1gig memory card can hold several thousand pictures.
And is the size of a postage stamp, and about as thick as a dime.
But sketches would be nice too!
BTTT!
Get the Iraqis addresses and send it to them. You might want to get in touch with Operation Iraqi Children, the foundation that actor Gary Sinese co-founded.
Well said! Bump!
It is pretty common knowledge that the Kurdish areas of Iraq were and remain apart from Persian and/or Arab Iraq;
Kurds are neat people, willing and able to sacrifice and to fight back. Willing and able to meet with the press and to rebuild before others would consider attempting it.
But, entirely apart from Kurd/Turk/Iraqi issues, this is not Iraq.
Are there any parallel reports from the south?
Will the tour include the south?
(Sorry if this sounds negative: but we just dumped an election because of 'faulty intelligence' - or maybe 'failure to communicate').
PS: "faulty intelligence"; The Pubbies:
Assumed middle class hispanics would vote conservative
Assumed middle class Jews would vote conservative
Assumed middle class Blacks would vote conservative
Assumed that "war time" still had some meaning in a post Vietnam America
and,
Assumed that the utter lack of a message would doom any left wing effort at repeating its late sixties successes
[That, in turn] ignored the attraction that socialism holds for 'youth', especially educated youth...
Compassionate Conservatism then ignored its conservative base
Which allowed...
Some Republicans to stay home (I'd bet a SMALL percent)
some Republicans to cast protest votes for libertarians, democrats, or space aliens
And, finally; they
Ignored the border issues that might embarrass GWB and Senor Faux
Failed to admit that the cutting edge of Dem policy makers is and remains a socialist conspiracy
Failed to use even remotely similar tactics against a dirty fighter
and,
Allowed the dirty fighter/socialist/antiwar and anti-troops/democrat left to selectively arsenate otherwise viable conservative personalities....
We lost by being nice, by believing that the economy mattered to the way people vote when the key really is manufactured perception & entirely apart from technical reality,
And,
By trying to make nice with the "moderate" fringe of a socialist (Bolshevik) opposition.
I'm no longer in the mood for comforting answers and it has been 33 years since I assumed the other side was in any manner honorable.
Rant completed. I'll be nice now.
I now have time to go back and see the first 2 reports.
I can't imagine how exciting and at the same time emotionally draining this trip is for all of them. Can't wait to see ALL the photos!
It would make a perfect book!
God bless the Iraqis!
Whooo hooo! bttt
Is there any other kind of RAT???
Keep shining the lights on the herd! Isn't it funny how they make one point and change it to something else after the first one falls apart! After sparring with these loones for awhile you know what their next switch up is going to be! So predictable.
Keep up the great work, lone voice!
You know the old saying, "it begins with one voice".
But be careful lest the wrath of the moonbat heirarchy vist you.
Latenight bump.
God Bless the Gold Star Families!!!! They and their family members are my heros.
free dixie,sw
Pinging those who can talk to you about the history of this area, how the people define themselves, and what Saddam (remember him? He used to rule Iraq) did in this region.
Thanks for bumping the thread.
bump
God help our troops and the Iraqi people.
See you Friday?
BUMP!
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