Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

Donate

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • Email
  • RSS
  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2023 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Uncategorized

Kurdish Civilians Are Scattering From

Juan Cole 02/23/2003

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email
0 Shares

Kurdish civilians are scattering from their towns, fearful of being bombarded with poison Iraq by the Baath Party if war breaks out with the US. The Baathists hit the Kurds with poison gas in 1988 for colluding with Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. The horrible attack on Halabja in March of that year left an estimated 5,000 dead. Journalist Shirzad Shaykhali toured the area for Asharq al-Awsat and found many people terrified and moving or thinking about moving to the countryside.

It would be a grotesque nightmare if Saddam tried to take more innocent Kurds down with him as his armageddon approaches. It seems to me, though that he would have difficulty delivering the gas at this point. The US would interdict gunship helicopters or fixed wing planes, and it is not clear he has any scuds left. Let’s hope I’m right.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

Primary Sidebar

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter and have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.

Twitter

Follow Juan Cole @jricole or Informed Comment @infcomment on Twitter

Facebook



Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2023 All Rights Reserved

Posting....