Rauf Naqishbendi
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Articles by Rauf Naqishbendi
September 18, 2009
On September 12, tens of thousands of people marched on the U.S. Capitol chanting and carrying signs with slogans like "Obamacare makes me sick." This at a time when President Obama´s healthcare initiative has not been finalized or voted on by Congress. This demonstration was propelled by right wing...
August 08, 2009
Corruption on a grand scale in Kurdistan of Iraq initiated with the "No Fly Zone" declared by the United States and its Gulf War allies post first Gulf War. The oil-for-food program resolution by the United Nations became an instrument to further indulge Barzani into looting Iraqi Kurds. The Barzani...
June 30, 2009
The Iranian post-presidential election turmoil has been rocking the ruling clergy government in Iran, and posing the most threatening challenge to their authority since its inception in 1979. This turmoil is a confrontation between theocracy and democracy, fundamentalist Islamic ruling class vs. wes...
June 17, 2009
It all depends on to whom one listens. There are many economists claiming that the bad news is behind us and the economy is in recovery mode. Banks have passed the Stress Test initiated by the federal bank regulators and so accordingly appear to be in good shape. Most major banks have reported last-...
June 05, 2009
" I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed, confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice, government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people, the freedom to li...
May 07, 2009
When tyrants reign with absolute power, they make every effort to weaken the will and spirit of the people. They employ every harsh measure to subdue the object of their oppression understanding when the people band together to rise against them, it will be their ultimate downfall. Because wealth is...
May 06, 2009
Social, political, and economic changes throughout the world are about to commence. Some think the end of the American Empire is near. On contrary, America will maintain its economic and military supremacy but with a feeble economy. Credit will be tightened resulting in less consumption and slower e...
April 24, 2009
By Jean Bartlett
On the morning of March 17, 1988, Rauf Naqishbendi picked up a cup of coffee and a San Francisco Chronicle as he headed into his office.
The morning's headline took direct aim at his heart.
Saddam Hussein had unleashed a chemical attack on the city of Halabja, Kurdistan an...
April 11, 2009
Last Monday, President Barack Obama addressed the parliament of Turkey. The tone of his speech was conciliatory. Obama seemed intent on ironing out the wrinkle in the relationship between the United States and Turkey. He spoke eloquently, differentiating himself from his predecessors by balancing A...
April 09, 2009
Is this a bold economic experiment or just madness? Never in the history of mankind has so much money has been spent so fast. The Federal Reserve Bank is working overtime printing money as if it is inconsequential, while the Treasury Department is borrowing money at an unprecedented rate as if neve...
April 03, 2009
The Iraqi President and the head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Mr. Talabani, recently told Turkey's Hurriyet daily: "I tell my Turkish brothers not to fear that Kurds will declare independence. It is an advantage for Kurds to stay within the borders of Iraq in terms of their economic, cultur...
March 20, 2009
It started with Bush-Paulson´s rescue package and continued with Obama´s stimulus package. The Fed and the Treasury Department keep on pumping trillions of dollars into troubled financial institutions. These are bold experiments but it is beyond anyone´s knowledge to determine their factual benef...
January 28, 2009
Consumer spending to stimulate the economy has been the intended target of recent government programs to foster economic recovery. Twice since the economic stagnation began, taxpayers have been sent free money for the sole purpose of spending. At the same time the Federal Reserve Bank kept on lower...
January 15, 2009
The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) commenced its official Kurdish-language television broadcast on January 1, 2009, with the motto, "We live under the same sky," pretentiously advocating the Turks´ peaceful coexistence with the Kurdish minority. Given Turkish belligerence and their ...
January 02, 2009
The uncertainty of the future health of the American economy has created an atmosphere of fear, doom, and gloom. The optimists among us persist on predicting a quick recovery, while the pessimists believe we are approaching another Great Depression. But for the optimists, as usual, recovery is one ...
December 26, 2008
There seems to be nothing on the economic radar these days but bad news. Pessimistic doses of both domestic and international economic news are a daily event. How these economic predicaments affect both federal and state governments and their potential ramifications on the life of the nation is the...
November 24, 2008
Dire Consequences May Await Kurds When American Troops Exit Iraq
The Iraqi government and U.S. officials recently signed a pact regarding American troops withdrawal, that may well prove to be one of the most costly diplomatic blunders in U.S. history. It will compromise Iraq´s future and the ...
October 09, 2008
In a sweeping bailout to detoxify major financial institutions´ balance sheets from undervalued debts, lawmakers agreed on a $700 billion rescue package. The crisis has been building through years of bad lending and unethical and greedy practices, all permitted by government deregulation and ...
September 19, 2008
Since the disintegration of Soviet Union, the United States has become an undisputed world superpower fueled by its giant and powerful economy. However, in the wake of an overstretched military and its exuberant cost, it is questionable whether the U.S. economy can support such in its current form.
...
August 28, 2008
The federal government has been borrowing money imprudently and wasting it recklessly as if it has never has to pay the money back. This has been the trend since the time of President Ronald Reagan. The daunting problem is the lack of a ceiling on spending by our politicians. Individual credit cardh...
August 15, 2008
Sustainable economic growth supported by a well-thought out monetary policy and fiscal discipline is a necessary prerequisite for economic prosperity. The economy is influenced by a host of factors, the most significant of which is the political system. Government is the key to the economic conditi...
August 08, 2008
Agriculture is a crucial sector of any economy, significantly important to the lifeline of any nation. Similarly, one of the oldest and noblest professions known to man is farming, the means by which food is created to sustain people and their livestock. Historically, farming has provided a liveliho...
July 25, 2008
No nation can reach the pinnacle of its economic prosperity without genuine leadership and a good governing system. It is the governing body of a society that fuels economic advancements through legislative enactment, and fiscal and monetary policies. The most crucial task before any government is t...
July 16, 2008
A democratic system dominated by a powerful special interest group will lose the true meaning of its founding principles. Such a disparity provides the privileged and well-connected with tremendous advantages while undermining the interests of the greater general public. Economic justice in a democr...
July 02, 2008
During the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the Kurdish people are free from the grasp of Arab atrocities. This is a temporary situation, however, and Kurds remain in danger of national annihilation unless they become an independent nation with their own sovereign state. Thence, national exigency demands ...
June 25, 2008
In the life of any nation, there is no substitute for effective, positive leadership. Good leaders can lift a nation from despair and disappointment to hope and a re-kindling of what is possible. On the other hand, ineffective, poor leadership can burden a healthy nation with overwhelming diff...
June 18, 2008
Liberation from the grip of occupation is one of the most arduous tasks facing any nation. At times, its bloody struggle can stretch over decades, as is the case with the Kurds. Kurdish independence is complicated by its geographical location and its bountiful natural resources. It has been divided...
June 15, 2008
Saddam Hussein´s genocidal campaign against Kurdish civilians is one of the most atrocious and cruelest crimes recorded against humanity. While the Kurds know firsthand the horror of their treatment at the hands of Saddam and his tyrannical regime, the rest of the world is uninformed. Given th...
June 04, 2008
When British Colonialists created what today is Iraq, they did so without consulting the Iraqi people and with complete disregard for the centuries-old ethnic and religious differences among the three major divisions that make up the country´s population.
Arabs and Kurds make up more than ...
May 21, 2008
The decade of the 1990s marked a heyday in our country´s chronicles; we were on a spree fueled by cheap energy. American ingenuity was revealed as we embarked on the electronic technology revolution. We celebrated the disintegration of our long-time rival, the Soviet Union. It was a peaceful ...
April 16, 2008
On the surface the government of Iraq has been transformed from tyranny to democracy. But upon scratching the surface one sees corrupted government officials heading organized crime and preying on the Iraqi people. High-ranking Iraqi government officials are engaged in the utmost corruption, favorin...
April 02, 2008
The Bush administration has convincingly proclaimed the success of the troop surge and their pivotal role in attenuating the bloodshed and pandemonium in Iraq. Even with the dismal economic conditions which currently overshadow foreign affairs, the Iraq War is still in the American mind and remains ...
March 12, 2008
Turkish authorities have asserted that their mission is accomplished; therefore the Turkish military aggression against the PKK stronghold, Qandel, in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq) will be halted. Contrary to Turkish claims, the mission is far from being accomplished. For Turkey, a complete mis...
February 21, 2008
The armed confrontation between Turkey and the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) is about two decades old, while the Turkish genocide of Kurdish minorities commenced post World War I and heightened in the 1980s. During this period, the United States was cognizant of the Turks´ diabolical malice towa...
February 12, 2008
Five years into the Iraq war, thousands of American and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives have been lost and hundreds of billions of dollars have been expended and there is no end in sight. Strategies have been altered only in military terms and there has been an appalling lack of diplomatic miss...
February 06, 2008
Since the banishment of the former Shah, the United States´ relationship with Iran has been pugnacious. The US has persistently sought regime change to restore its strategic interest in the Persian Gulf. The latest event in this saga is the sponsorship by the CIA of PJAK, a group of Iranian K...
November 16, 2007
The European Union’s tepid response to Turkey’s application for membership has deeply discomfited Turks. Turkey is without a doubt losing the esteem of the West, including the United States. Let us examine the aptitude of Turkey’s membership in the EU as well as a justification of the US’s dwindling...
November 09, 2007
Turkey’s application to join the European Union has met with a lukewarm response. The relationship between Washington and Ankara has been going downhill since the commencement of the Iraq War. The United States Senate has passed two resolutions affecting this issue: one acknowledging the Turks’ geno...
August 30, 2007
The War on Terror which propelled America into the Iraq War will leave us with a host of economic, social, political and military burdens that current and future generations alike will have to bear. Suffice it to say that time is working against the United States and the longer this chaos continues ...
August 27, 2007
Rauf Naqishbendi’s address to the Kurdish community in North California,
Sunday, October 27, 2003. The gathering was sponsored by the Kurdish National Congress Of North America and Kurdish Relief Aid.
We have gathered today to discuss the future of our people. In light of the recent U.S. occup...
August 18, 2007
In a representative democracy the power of the people is delegated to their representatives mandating that, for the period of their incumbency, they act in unison with the good of the great body of people. When sympathy with a class of citizens or the influence of invisible hands is substituted for ...
August 01, 2007
Unscrupulous British political architecture originally engineered this troublesome country called "Iraq." Now, almost eight decades later, the British will revisit Iraq and pay the price for defective workmanship, still believing that current actions can correct past mistakes. The United States is f...
August 01, 2007
No one with any sense or sensibility about forms of government would consider the Iraqi system of government a democratic system. The Iraqi government is primarily dominated by Sunni Arab Moslems, Shiite Arabs, and Kurds, all at ill ease with each other. The Shiites and Sunnis both are biding their ...
July 29, 2007
Whether you call them “political campaign contributions”, “soft money”, “hard money”, or any other name, it all boils down to bribery. The World English Dictionary defines bribe as “to give somebody money or some other incentive to do something, especially something illegal or dishonest.” The out-of...
July 28, 2007
Friday, January 28, 2005
KurdishMedia.com - By Rauf Naqishbendi
President George W. Bush’s inaugural address to the American people was remarkably well delivered. The speech was drafted almost twenty times, and in all fairness, was framed as a piece of literary brilliance that will go down ...
July 27, 2007
One of the greatest triumphs of our time is the rapid and diverse communication through internet media. With the click of a mouse one can surf through world news anywhere and at anytime. This phenomenon has made it difficult for despotic regimes and vicious groups to continue their atrocities again...
July 25, 2007
Kurds in Iraq have been suffering due to the occupation of their country by Arabs. Now, thankfully, under American occupation the Kurds have been blessed with a freedom that for them is unprecedented. However, this felicitous situation is inextricably tied in with American occupation; this implies t...
July 24, 2007
An interesting news article recently came to my attention (London Financial Times).
The article is entitled “Kurds should not let language deepen divisions.” Mr. Nickolas and his co-author Mr. Damjan wrote, “After the Iraqi war, the international community made it clear that there will be no par...
July 22, 2007
Experimental trials and routine tactics are usually practiced in absence of a visionary plan, and such has been the case in this post-Saddam era. The current disparate situation in Iraq is a direct result of mistaken US policies. Consider Al-Hakem, a religious Shiite figure whose safe refuge was gra...
July 18, 2007
Iraq Study Group, Baker-Hamilton predicated success of his plan for the Iraqis’ national reconciliation though he acknowledged that the Iraqi people and government are divided on religious and ethnic fault lines. In his own words, “Iraqi leaders often claim that they do not want a division of the co...
July 16, 2007
From denial to admission, suppression to confession, innocence to guilt - the Turks are pressured to confront their past and to finally acknowledge their commission of genocide against the defenseless Assyrians and Armenians.
But the purpose of admitting past mistakes is typically to disconnect ...
July 16, 2007
The political and social upheaval in Iraq is worsening as time goes by. Insurgencies and the accompanying sectarian violence have torn the country apart. As far as Iraq policy is concerned, it’s not what has been done wrong that is the issue but what has not been done right.
The question of Kirk...
July 15, 2007
Iran claims that they started to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. But the Western World, the United States in particular, contradicts this Iranian claim and asserts that Tehran’s intent is to make an atomic bomb, and demands that the Iranian nuclear program be suspended. This difficult developm...
July 15, 2007
My people have lived through a harsh and horrible genocidal campaign under the tyrannical leadership of Saddam Hussein. It has been three decades since I left my native country, Kurdistan, in northern Iraq. Two years ago, I returned home for the first time. I joined my family in the city of Sulayma...
July 11, 2007
The diplomatic efforts between Washington and Ankara have been incessant since the beginning of the Iraqi Liberation Campaign, with the Turks hounding the United States’ officials, pushing three of their main agendas: muting the Iraqi Kurds’ demand for statehood, crushing the Kurdistan Workers’ Part...
July 10, 2007
Prominent Democrats as well as Republicans who are critical of President Bush’s Iraq policy are pushing for a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. This is rationally inexplicable and will only rush the US headlong to failure in this endeavor. Failure would have many more ramifi...
July 09, 2007
President George W. Bush was in a hurry to invade Iraq, and his impatience to do so left him with no time for diplomacy. Excitement overpowered wisdom, and unrealistic optimism impeded visionary plans. He defied the league of nations, and rushed to invade Iraq with only mediocre international suppor...
July 08, 2007
Insurgents in Iraq have become a major headache for the Bush administration, and an impediment to the peace and democracy so dear to many Iraqis. Nonetheless, the true question is not what to do with insurgents but what to do with Iraq itself - with the demography and geography that have been Iraq's...
July 06, 2007
A small group of thugs cannot take a nation hostage unless the people of that nation compromise their values and ignore their own destiny. For the will of a nation is impenetrable by troublemakers regardless of how intricate or sophisticated their strategy may be. If a small cult were to succeed in ...
July 05, 2007
Nationalism and religious extremism are the most notorious forms of fanaticism. Truly each one is a disease of the mind that together have been responsible for more human casualties than any physical ailments known to man. No religious group and no particular nation is immune from these diseases, wh...
July 02, 2007
In every stage of history, mankind has grave challenges to face. Today’s challenge for humanity is a new phenomenon, an international terrorism unlike those in the past that were limited to a certain people, group or selected nations. The realm of today’s terrorism is the world as a whole, and there...
June 30, 2007
In every era of its history mankind has had its challenges to face: battles to fight, peace to make, evils to eliminate, conflicts to resolve and wrongs to right. Today, we are facing religious fanatics as they attempt world domination. This is one of the oldest predicaments in history; it’s even mo...
June 30, 2007
A friendship between America and Turkey has been a liability for America since the beginning, due to Turkey’s notoriously dirty human rights record. During the Cold War Turkey’s strategic location propelled America to seek a close relationship with Turkey. Thankfully, all that changed when the Iron ...
June 03, 2007
Whether you call them “illegal immigrants” or “undocumented workers”, these euphemisms don’t soften the fact that illegal immigrants by definition are those who have obtruded their way into America against the established laws of the land. Decades of border neglect to indulge the avarice of certain...
May 05, 2007
The presidential campaign has commenced as usual with many candidates. They all promise not what they can actually deliver but what will sound appealing to us. They exploit our hopes for better days and our fears that none will come. No matter what they promise, the entangled domestic and interna...
April 02, 2007
The Iraq War has been very detrimental to America’s pride and prestige. It has siphoned off a considerable portion of America’s economic resources and over-stretched its military’s capabilities. It has cast a tragic shadow over Iraq’s peace and security to the extent that Iraq is now the most dange...
March 15, 2007
Up until now in the war game, the Iraqi military has not proven their readiness, and with a resounding cataclysm, a surge of American troops has been approved. At the same time, Iraq’s military has empirically proven their lack of progress and efficacy as they remain embattled in sectarian clashes ...
November 30, 1999
Recently, two major issues have haunted Turkey. First, their impatience to intrude militarily into Kurdistan in northern Iraq, and second, the passing of two nonbinding resolutions by the United States Senate: one in support of partitioning Iraq into three autonomous states, and the other an acknow...
November 30, 1999
Political Satire
Saturday, October 11, 2003
Last Week, President Bush gave a general address to the Middle East and to Iraq in particular. His characteristically presumptuous speech about democracy was rebuffed by Arabs and Iranians alike. Mr. Bush could elicit a more agreeable response from t...