Iraq’s Latest Battle

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/opinion/iraqs-latest-battle.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 9:50 AM
Subject: re: Iraq’s Latest Battle
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   When the U.S. ratified the charter of the United Nations, we pledged to support National self-determination of peoples. As a ratified treaty, that's the "supreme law of the land". Maintaining the current, arbitrary boundaries of Iraq might be convenient to our allies, but it is certainly not the responsibility of the U.S. The Kurds deserve a national homeland no less than do any other people.  Jake Garner might have gained the U.S. a staunch ally if he had been permitted to create a free, strong Kurdistan. If we are to go on spending American dollars in Iraq, it should be for better reasons than for a nostalgic attachment to a map drawn in haste by the conquering powers of the first World War. Surely we should not spend a dime to suppress the Kurds' legitimate bid for a national homeland.

Barry Haskell Levine