After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness?: My Encounters with Kurdistan

The Kurds, an ancient Indo-European people thought to have originally occupied Persia, have been banished and dispersed so often throughout history that although they remain a distinct ethnic group who have maintained their cultural patterns for a longer period than any people now living in Europe, they are without an autonomous country, now scattered throughout Iran, Iraq, Serbia, Afghanistan, Turkey and other sites in the Middle East. Randal, a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post and author of Going All the Way, found that wherever there was trouble, the Kurds were somehow involved, often on both sides of wars and power politics as well as in their own internecine battles. Here, in a densely detailed study of these involvements throughout time, he lays out a little-known history of this fierce and contentious people, their complex intrigues and his own difficult and often dangerous attempts to report on them, particularly in relation to the role they played in the recent Iraq-Kuwait affair. Thorough and comprehensive, this is invaluable for diplomats, politicians and historians, but for the general reader the record of disputes, betrayals and labyrinthine politics that resound throughout the Western world can be overwhelming. (June)