The Kurdistan in America podcast is honored to have Senator Chris Van Hollen as its guest in this special bonus edition.
Senator Van Hollen, who has a long record of public service in the US Congress, has co-sponsored S.Con.Res.16 with Senator Marco Rubio. The bipartisan resolution commemorates the anniversary of Operation Provide Comfort, the humanitarian-military mission that averted catastrophe after hundreds of thousands of Kurds fled Saddam Hussein's forces in 1991. The US, Britain, and France launched the operation that saved countless lives.
The KRG Representation calls on the Kurdish-American community to reach out to their members of Congress to ask them to support the resolution in both the House and the Senate.
Senator Van Hollen's history of championing the Kurds goes back to 1988 when he and a colleague, Peter Galbraith, were on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. They visited the Iraqi-Turkish border and interviewed Kurds who had fled chemical bombardment in Iraq. They wrote a damning report that, for the first time, shone a light on the Anfal genocide. The Maryland Senator describes the Kurds today as 'fighters for justice.'