SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) -- Iraq has played a major role in American military strategy for over a generation.
However, Iraqi Kurdistan in the north just voted overwhelming for independence. Former Kurdish peshmerga fighter Qadir Aware, 65, says the Kurds share values with South Dakotans and that as their friend, we should care about their freedom.
"Why people of South Dakota or Sioux Falls should be care?" Aware asks rhetorically. "Because we are a decent people. In this town and in this country we have a right to freedom and to speak up and protect ourselves and live in a peaceful solution."
Aware, who use to run the Multi-Cultural Center in Sioux Falls, says Kurdistan is the only region in the Middle East that supports the free practice of all religions and is a democracy. He says they also look to the West and to the future while their Iraqi neighbors often look to Iran and to the past.
Forty years ago, Kurdish-American fought Iraq's Sadam Hussein for freedom and for his life. Today, the longtime Sioux Falls resident says he feels like he's fighting the American government so it will help his former homeland.
"I love this country, I die for this country," Aware says about the United States. "I love American people but I have always been against the foreign policy, what the Washington (policy makers) do and did to us."
Though Iraqi Kurds fought effectively against ISIS for the United States, Aware says our government opposes Kurdistan's independence from Iraq, which was an often unreliable ally in the fight against terrorism.
You can hear more with Aware above and on Jon Michael's Forum.