2003-03-04T23:36:00.001-08:00

I love puns.

So let's talk Turkey.

How 'bout those Kurds? Sure is cynical how they've been indirectly* used and abused over the past year.

Let's take a tally to see what the winners are getting!

Turkey: $30+ billion.

Kurdish Northern Iraq: Invaded.

This is going to be a fun year. Maybe we'll get lucky and get to watch our own Sabra and Shatila!

Over the last few years, the US' main hope for a democratic Iraq was the Iraqi National Congress -- but given Ahmed Chalabi's penchant for saying what the hand that feeds him wants to hear, as well as his utter lack of credibility as a source of information on the regime, it was only a matter of time before he got dropped as soon as the shit hit that fan.

That's (one of the many reasons) why you're hearing a lot more about how this war would be averted if Saddam Hussein went into exile. The pundits say this naturally means his regime as well, but there's no evidence that Rumsfeld and Co. are not serious when they say Hussein and Hussein only.

Who's gonna run the show? The INC? Fuck them, they've got no popular support within Iraq, despite the millions upon millions of dollars they've been given. But the promise to the INC was that after "liberation," Iraq's territorial integrity would not be compromised. The same promise has been given to Turkey. As far as I know, the Turkish carrot is still being dangled out there, but I'm not sure what the position is regarding Iraq's territorial integrity. The Kurds aren't interested in that being maintained, but given how they've been used as pawns for so long (see above post), methinks they deserve more than that.

Gonna be a fun year.

*It's never "the Kurdish peoples of Northern Iraq." It's always "his own people."

Please, please, people. For the love of all that's sacred. Prove me wrong. I have never wanted to be proven wrong so much in my life.

2003-03-04T23:36:00.000-08:00

More on the misadministration's mysterious diplomatic blunder

Salon's got it.

No surprise there.

The story was based on a memo allegedly sent by a National Security Agency official seeking surveillance information on the thoughts of U.N. Security Council delegates for countries that remain either opposed to or undecided on the war against Iraq...But no major American newspaper had run with the story.
No surprise there.

Martin Bright, the Observer's home affairs editor...who helped write the story, was reached on his cellphone as he drove home from an interview with Canadian TV. Bright said that he had agreed to interviews with NBC, CNN, and Fox News Channel -- and that all three had called and canceled.
No surprise there.

Eschew Obfuscation