Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/03/02/american-fighting-isis-returns.html
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So the American health care system ISN’T the worst in the world? U-S-A! U-S-A!
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I figure a doctor from Chicago would have much more experience in patching gunshot wounds than a medic in an active war zone.
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I’m sure that was one awkward plane ride. “yes i would like another $15 tiny bottle of booze, oh and napkins LOTS of napkins”
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https://itsgoingdown.org/radical-people-podcast-frontlines-of-the-fight-against-isis/
The YPG/YPJ are currently under heavy attack from Turkey, BTW. The US is no longer providing aircover for the Kurds, and the Turkish air force are bombing the crap out of them while their ISIS-aligned proxy troops loot and murder.
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Enh, sounds like they did the field medicine in Syria, the stabilization in Jordan, and then it was back to blighty with him, as it were. I imagine the Amman, Jordan to Ann Arbor, Michigan direct flights were all booked up.
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So the YPG is mostly Kurdish? Those people really should get their own nation. They sorta already do with their area in Iraq being a special region with some autonomy.
I was thinking the other day, you know I am not sure why with Iraq and Afghanistan and possibly with Syria later, why we didn’t just redraw lines instead of insisting on retaining the nations as they were. I am guessing one centralized government is easier to deal with than a half dozen or more. But the modern Middle-astern lines are largely drawn with little to no mind about WHO lives there and the various cultures and their differences. Differences that has required a strong authoritarian government in the past and probably will in the future to maintain stability.
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Governments want to hold on to their stuff, especially Turkey.
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YPJ/G began as a Kurdish unit, and still mostly is, but these days Rojava is heavily multi-ethnic.
There is a significant International Brigade fighting alongside them.
…which includes some unusual subdivisions:
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As a frequent flyer, I can definitely say they are $7-9.
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Right - but Iraq and Afghanistan were invaded and new governments set up etc. It would have been an opportunity to draw better lines then. But like I said, I am guessing one stronger central power is easier to deal with.
ETA - could be they didn’t want to goof up the Animaniacs Countries of the World song too much.
Iraqi Kurdistan (mostly traditional social liberal/conservative politics) has significant political issues with Turkish and Syrian Kurdistan (majority libertarian-socialist). I don’t know where Iranian Kurdistan fits in, although from the few bits of information I have heard they would probably side with Turkish/Syrian Kurdistan.
I don’t think it will be easily fixed.
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Huh, I thought I read that Turkey fears if the Iraqi Kurds get their own Kurdistan, the Kurds in Turkey will want to join it. Or maybe it was they would want their own Turkish-Kurdistan.
The thing is, that region has been redrawing borders as they joined one empire or another for centuries. It’s rather naive for us to think the current national borders will always be that way?
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Also noteworthy about Rojava is a serious commitment to gender equality.
They use gender-balanced joint leadership in political offices, and the YPJ are a major front-line part of their combat forces.
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The amazing thing is, you will not find a great group of GOP supporters than the Kurds. They literally celebrate George W Bush as their liberator and love everything about the GOP.
They both want one Kurdistan, but disagree with how it will be run, and the bottom-up libertarian socialism (called Democratic Confederalism in Kurdistan) favoured in Syria and Turkey is pretty much incompatible with the top-down traditional politics in Iraq.
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US ER docs are becoming more familiar with wounds made by military-grade weapons, unfortunately, so there’s that:
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