I began covering war for National
Geographic in 2006 and I never got to
Kurdistan during that part of the war
and in fact I really didn’t have any
idea who the Kurds war were back then
and I happened to meet some wounded
Kurdish soldiers in Baghdad and I
started to think who are these guys I’ve
never even heard of them where they live
and so going north to Kurdistan after
covering the war in the South it was
like going to a different country I
think the story of the Kurds is one of
the most important ones I’ve ever been
involved with
because these are people who’ve been
largely left alone to face the greatest
terrorist threat in the world and
they’re an important they have been an
important American ally but after the
Iraq war sort of slowed down we the
Americans left them to their own fate
and now they’re standing strong against
Isis and very few other groups can do
that I’d like people to learn from this
show more about the Kurds who they are
what they’re facing and why they’re
going to be an important ally for the
West going forward they are facing an
enormous challenge right now in trying
to keep their country stable while they
fight off this enormous enemy and we
even the United States hasn’t really had
to do something like that and it’s
history so it’s a unique struggle and I
think Americans will sympathize greatly
with burns the most lasting impact was
made by a few the people that I
interviewed including a female commander
of the women’s battalion and she had
recently lost a daughter while they were
both together fighting Isis so mother
and daughter were fighting on the same
front line daughter was under the
mother’s command and the daughter was
killed by mortar fire and that was an
incredibly powerful story to hear
because it’s not every day that you meet
someone who has given so much to defend
their homeland
when I hear Isis makes me angry actually
this struggle comes closest to good
versus evil it’s almost silly to
describe anything in such stark terms
but Isis is not an enemy that you
negotiate and it makes me angry to think
what they have done and especially after
meeting people friends now who’ve lost
family members to the fight against Isis
it actually pushes you out of the
journalistic objectivity thing a bit and
there are many times when I thought I
would have gladly joined the Kurds to
fight against Isis myself
Geographic in 2006 and I never got to
Kurdistan during that part of the war
and in fact I really didn’t have any
idea who the Kurds war were back then
and I happened to meet some wounded
Kurdish soldiers in Baghdad and I
started to think who are these guys I’ve
never even heard of them where they live
and so going north to Kurdistan after
covering the war in the South it was
like going to a different country I
think the story of the Kurds is one of
the most important ones I’ve ever been
involved with
because these are people who’ve been
largely left alone to face the greatest
terrorist threat in the world and
they’re an important they have been an
important American ally but after the
Iraq war sort of slowed down we the
Americans left them to their own fate
and now they’re standing strong against
Isis and very few other groups can do
that I’d like people to learn from this
show more about the Kurds who they are
what they’re facing and why they’re
going to be an important ally for the
West going forward they are facing an
enormous challenge right now in trying
to keep their country stable while they
fight off this enormous enemy and we
even the United States hasn’t really had
to do something like that and it’s
history so it’s a unique struggle and I
think Americans will sympathize greatly
with burns the most lasting impact was
made by a few the people that I
interviewed including a female commander
of the women’s battalion and she had
recently lost a daughter while they were
both together fighting Isis so mother
and daughter were fighting on the same
front line daughter was under the
mother’s command and the daughter was
killed by mortar fire and that was an
incredibly powerful story to hear
because it’s not every day that you meet
someone who has given so much to defend
their homeland
when I hear Isis makes me angry actually
this struggle comes closest to good
versus evil it’s almost silly to
describe anything in such stark terms
but Isis is not an enemy that you
negotiate and it makes me angry to think
what they have done and especially after
meeting people friends now who’ve lost
family members to the fight against Isis
it actually pushes you out of the
journalistic objectivity thing a bit and
there are many times when I thought I
would have gladly joined the Kurds to
fight against Isis myself
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