Subject: re: Sunni Extremists in Iraq Seize 3 Towns From Kurds and Threaten Major Dam

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Aug 4, 2014 at 4:33 PM
Subject: re: Sunni Extremists in Iraq Seize 3 Towns From Kurds and Threaten Major Dam
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

   For three years, the U.S. government has dithered, terrified of backing the wrong side while the civil war in Syria has claimed 170,000 lives.At one time, 800 distinct factions were enumerated each of whom wanted al-Assad dead for their own reasons.  It is time--not for U.S. boots on the ground--but for us to back what is right against what is monstrous.  As president Truman recognized and armed Israel in 1948, it is time that president Obama recognize and arm Kurdistan.  The Kurds have a right to self-determination as enunciated in the UN charter.  If that irks the Iranians, the Iraqis, the Syrians and the Turks so be it. Their imperial ambitions can't trump a people's right. And the Kurds will host an American airbase every bit as nice as Incirlik if it comes to that. They--unlike their neighbors--actually like us.

Barry

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/04/world/middleeast/iraq.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0