From all the international hysteria, you would think that Kurds—one of the most brutally oppressed people on earth—were trying to unleash the deadly Bubonic Plague upon humanity.

We aren’t—not even a common cold, barely a sneeze.

We are merely saying we’d like to be free, as countless nations have craved over the centuries.

We are not even declaring our independence, as America did in 1776, India did in 1947 and Slovakia did in 1993.

We are not declaring war—only voting in Kurdistan/Iraq by means of a referendum, stating whether we would like to be free.

Is that such a ghastly crime?

Many nations view it as a world-threatening pestilence.

Iraq, Turkey, Iran and other Middle East nations are horrified.

The United States and the United Nations are strongly opposed.

The latest horsewoman brazenly dashing out to crush the Kurdish freedom fever is the International Crisis Group, self-professed surgeon of our sick world.

If we signed a nonaggression pact with Islamic State terrorists—instead of fighting them, as the United States is doing—would the Crisis Group march out to subdue ISIS?

If it did, they would quickly find out who is really elevating the world’s temperature!

To cure the imaginary Kurdish fever, the Crisis Group gratuitously assigned to us “Doctor” Maria Fantappie, a Ph.D. candidate at King’s College in London.

Peace oozes from the lips of this young student at the Department of War Studies, and hypothetical healing balm flows from her fever-lowering pen.

She is portrayed as a “Senior Analyst” of Iraq, the country she studies, but conveniently glosses over the plight of millions of Kurds there.

In a three-page prescription posted on the Crisis Group’s website, she urges us to smother our experiment in self-rule. Yes, no kidding.

She assails our referendum as “a bridge too far,” again, cautioning us to forgo it as soon as possible! She may be a doctor of Arabs in Iraq, but does that qualify her to be a doctor of us, Kurds, as well?

She says we should not “exploit the surrounding disorder.”

Seeking a vote on freedom is exploiting disorder? Did America’s Declaration of Independence exploit disorder? If Kurds didn’t vote, would the surrounding disorder disappear?

Of course not, but she wants us to delay voting to seek a better “legal status” with the central government. The central government, lest we forget, was supposed to hold a referendum in Kirkuk in 2007 and we are still waiting, aren’t we?

At times, our good doctor seems confused in her diagnosis, such as on Kurdish President Masoud Barzani’s request for international guarantees if the election is postponed.

She says a postponement would be the “best case scenario, but not at any price.” A sort of yes, no, if, maybe, could be.

“Kicking the can down the road makes sense,” she declares, “but not in any direction.”

What does that really mean?

She calls the referendum ill-timed, one the world will and should “ignore.” It might. But would the world rally to Kurdish freedom if we cancel the vote?

Her backhanded two cents worth merely endorses the biased Arab position.

Professor Martin van Bruinessen, a Dutch anthropologist and author, describes the International Crisis Group’s anti-referendum position “irritating” and condescending.

In urging us to postpone our referendum, Ms. Fantappie seems to think nations come with manuals. Do they? Did the United States, India or Slovakia consult a guidebook for liberty? Isn’t voting the best way to find one’s way to freedom?

When you boil it down, the advice given Kurds is similar to an old recipe for raising mushrooms: “Keep ‘em in the dark and feed ‘em shit.”

Kurds have quite enough of that already, thank you very much.

We are kicked a few crumbs occasionally, as a sop, such as that from Brett McGurk, American Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS.

He recently thanked Kurds: “On behalf of all the families who have suffered so much in this conflict against ISIS, I want to extend our condolences for the losses. You’re really fighting on behalf of all of us.”

In short, thanks for fighting and dying to crush terrorism—but don’t expect us to support your freedom.

Is it any wonder we’re tired of waiting?

We have let others decide our fate for hundreds of years.

The result: Our language has been cruelly banned. Our bodies have been barbarically scorched with poison gas. Our oil has been stolen to subsidize the instruments of death and destruction against us.

No, thank you, Ms. Fantappie. Spare us your pious condescension.

Please don’t ask us to keep bowing at the feet of our self-appointed masters.

We want our children—what’s left of them, after years of ruthless slaughter—to live in the bright sunshine of liberty, and to breathe, at long last, the fresh air of freedom!

Kani Xulam @AKINinfo