To Be Fair: as Uttered by Hillary Kissinger

Public figures make lengthy speeches detailing their observations and recommendations for addressing the world's most critical problems. Most of these speeches generate attention for a few news cycles then lose any relevance. Within such speeches we can easily and cynically extract one phrase thereby isolating it, which changes its implied meaning. This is often done in our soundbite TV news culture. Yet sometimes just one statement strategically invoked renders the bulk of the speech as nothing but self-righteous posturing. Thus, those brief statements reveal much about a candidate's true moral conscience.

U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton shows her flair for speaking in platitudes that slide into political posturing when describing her analysis of the current conflict between Turkey and the Kurds.

Because ultimately, our efforts will only succeed if the Arabs and Turks step up in a much bigger way. This is their fight and they need to act like it. So far, however, Turkey has been more focused on the Kurds than on countering ISIS. And to be fair, (emphasis added) Turkey has a long and painful history with Kurdish terrorist groups. But the threat from ISIS cannot wait. [1]

This speech is filled with such nuance that it betrays a craven amorality. Speeches filled with such nuance are intended only for sophisticated audiences who understand that "democracy" in the U.S. is a staged auction, inducing false senses of civic power to those who vote and more apathy to those who already feel powerless.

This audience of whom Hillary seeks support accepts the U.S. poor and working classes as expendable and its Empire as "indispensable." Henry Kissinger, one of the most accomplished madmen of the U.S. Empire, expresses his view of the utility and expendable nature of common persons employed in the warrior class: "In Alexander (italics added) Haig's presence, Kissinger referred pointedly to military men as 'dumb, stupid animals to be used' as pawns for foreign policy." [2]

American masses who comprehend their position within the distribution of power in the U.S. are more able to understand Clinton's condescendingly nuanced dismissal of the Kurds. I will ignore her bullshit comment that "Turkey has been more focused on the Kurds than on countering ISIS." Turkey's support of ISIS has been widely discussed so far. Just ask Turkish journalists who face life in prison for practicing their vocation. Instead, focus on her saying "And to be fair, Turkey has a long painful history with Kurdish terrorist groups." 

Hilary's equivocal statement "And to be fair" informs the naive that Turkey's actions are at least somewhat justified because like the U.S. they are fighting "terrorism." Now Hillary never fails to identify Assad as incorrigibly evil, never equivocating "to be fair....Syria has a long painful history with terrorists groups." Or, more important did Hillary lecture her audience of elitists that "to be fair...the Kurds have a long painful history with being massacred?"

Her tactic of citing history so vaguely allows her to maintain the focus just on platitudes. Her husband had a painful history with Turkey and the Kurds. To be fair are the Kurds' seeking of independence from Turkey less legitimate than the "moderate opposition" in Syria? So if you invoke history then why not include more details of the facts on the ground in Turkey during its conflict with the Kurds? For example to be fair we should consider the following when assessing the history of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict:

Since 1984 the Turkish armed forces have been engaged in a brutal and costly war against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a militant Kurdish opposition group. As noted above, since the outbreak of the war, over 37,000 people have been killed, most of them Kurds. In addition, approximately 3,000 Kurdish villages have been destroyed in the southeastern provinces as part of the Turkish military's strategy of attempting to eliminate support for the PKK by attacking entire areas inhabited by suspected PKK sympathizers. [3]

Now with facts like these does Hilary's inserting the equivocal phrase "to be fair, Turkey has a long painful history with Kurdish terrorist groups" most accurately summarize the state of conditions in this conflict?

Turkey's conflict with the Kurds has not raged independently of any U.S. influence. The U.S. has provided military arms to Turkey during much of its conflict:

The first official acknowledgment of the role of U.S. weaponry in human rights violations in Turkey came in a June 1995 State Department report that was conducted as the result of legislation promoted by key members of Congress such as Rep. John Porter (R-IL). Although State Department investigators were denied access to key conflict areas in the southeast by the Turkish government, their summary of the evidence they were able to gather was conclusive: "U.S.-origin equipment, which accounts for most major items of the Turkish military inventory, has been used in operations against the PKK during which human rights abuses have occurred." The report also found "highly credible" evidence that U.S.-manufactured Sikorsky Black Hawk transport helicopters, Bell-Textron Super Cobra attack helicopters, and FMC Corp. M-113 armored personnel carriers had been used to attack Kurdish villages and violate the human rights of civilians. Citing evidence from 1992 through 1995, during the height of Turkey's campaign to depopulate Kurdish villages, the report notes that "it is highly likely that such equipment was used in the evacuation and/or destruction of villages." [4]

The recurrent theme acknowledged by the U.S. State Department is Turkey's destruction of Kurdish villages. Can we condescendingly acknowledge and justify such aggressive Turkish actions as the tragic result of being in the complex throes of war against terrorists?

Clinton's concern that fairness be upheld when evaluating Turkey's actions taken against Kurds should not lull us into ignoring other critical facts. These tragic facts that show U.S. cynical abetting of Turkish brutality waged against Kurds, especially during her spouse's presidency or, depending on your viewpoint, her co-presidency:

As a strategic ally and military outpost, Turkey initiated a military campaign against its miserably oppressed Kurdish population. Military, police, and paramilitary operations increased in intensity and violence in the 1990s, along with atrocities and US arms and military training. Turkey set two records in 1994, correspondent Jonathan Randal observed: 1994 was the 'year of the worst repression in the Kurdish provinces,' and the year when Turkey became 'the biggest single importer of American military hardware and thus the world's largest arms purchaser,' including advanced armaments, 'all of which were eventually used against the Kurds,' along with extensive co-production and other cooperation with Turkey's military and its military industry. In the year 1997 alone, arms from the Clinton Administration surpassed the entire period from 1950 to 1983. [5] 

Upon learning these facts the one thought that does not enter my mind is, "And to be fair, Turkey has a long painful history with Kurdish terrorist groups." Yet I am a laymen lacking the Hillary's sophistication. And to be fair, I will guess that the Kurds too lack sufficient sophistication to recognize their being murdered is just another phase in Turkey's long painful history with Kurdish terrorist groups.

Her comments should demonstrate a wide and deep understanding  of the myriad factors affecting the conflict in the region. Instead, her nuanced presentation shows Hilary expressing slight rhetorical concern for the Kurds. Meanwhile, her simultaneously conflating the massacres of Kurds' with Turkey's painful history with terrorist groups assures the establishment where her loyalty lies.    
  

[1]. Luisi, Paola. "a foreign policy expert explains Hillary Clinton's speech on ISIS." Nov 20, 2015. https://www.hillaryclinton.com/feed/foreign-policy-speech-annotated/

[2]. Woodward, Bob and Carl Bernstein. The Final Days. Simon & Schuster. New York. 1976. Kindle version. location 3517 of 9777.

[3].Tamar Gabelnick, William D. Hartung and Jennifer Washburn with research assistance by Michelle Ciarraocca. "Arming Repression: U.S. Arms Sales to Turkey During the Clinton Administration." A Joint Report of the World Policy Institute and the Federation of American Scientists. October 1999.http://fas.org/asmp/library/reports/turkeyrep.htm#kurds

[4]. Ibid.

[5]. Chomsky, Noam. The Essential Chomsky. ed. Anthony Arnove. The New Press. New York. 2008. p. 306.